2020 Ram 1500
This year drew an ordinary 620 complaints for a Ram 1500 — the model's median is 863. What they were about is the unusual part: 8.4% of them mention leak, against 1.4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 2 of the Ram 1500, which began in 2019. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 620 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 863 |
| Involving a crash | 24 |
| Involving a fire | 6 |
| Recalls | 14 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 21 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- leak — 8.4% of this year's complaints, against 1.4% across the other years of this generation (6×). Owners wrote it as: leak, headliner, bolts.
- exhaust — 6.1% of this year's complaints, against 1% across the other years of this generation (6.1×). Owners wrote it as: exhaust, manifold, exhaust manifold, manifolds.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
Exhaust manifold bolts snapping at low milage causing exhaust to possibly leak into the cabin. Most people are getting manifolds resurfaced and replacing the bolt's. If you replace manifold with new, it will warp again and break bolts again. Apparently the man…
My 2020 Ram 1500 exhaust manifold leak often causes a loud ticking noise, especially on startup, due to broken bolts or a cracked manifold.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 20V622000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 20V580000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V191000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 19V407000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V208000 VISIBILITY Fixed free of charge.
- 21V632000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V374000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 20V513000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL
Showing 8 of 14. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Ram 1500 was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2020 Ram 1500? What happened to yours?
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