2021 Ram 1500
This year drew an ordinary 665 complaints for a Ram 1500 — the model's median is 863. What they were about is the unusual part: 15.5% of them mention restart, against 6.1% 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 | 665 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 863 |
| Involving a crash | 26 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 15 |
| NHTSA crash rating | 4/5 |
| EPA combined | 21.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- restart — 15.5% of this year's complaints, against 6.1% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: restart, restart vehicle, restart truck, able restart.
- stalled — 11.7% of this year's complaints, against 2.9% across the other years of this generation (4×). Owners wrote it as: stalled, vehicle stalled.
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
while driving approximately 17- 20 MPH, the vehicle stalled with the parking brake warning light illuminated. The contact would shift to park and restart the vehicle and the vehicle would operate as intended. The vehicle was taken to be diagnosed but was not r…
DRIVING VEHICLE ABOUT 2 MPH, TAKING A RIGHT TURN - VEHICLE STALLED OUT AND EMERGENCY BRAKE LIGHT CAME ON. WAS ABLE TO RESTART PTS IGNITION WITHOUT ISSUE, THEN DRIVE AGAIN. TRUCK HAS 600+ MILES CURRENT. FOUND OTHER RAM OWNERS ON 5THGENRAMS.COM FORUMS STATING TH…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 21V438000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 21V918000 BACK OVER PREVENTION
- 21V698000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 21V925000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 21V037000 SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC Fixed free of charge.
- 22V638000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
- 22V767000 FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE Fixed free of charge.
- 22V904000 STRUCTURE Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 15. 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 2021 Ram 1500? What happened to yours?
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