plowtruck

I am happy to announce that I drove home a new 2004, Ram 2500, CTD today.

I ordered a new 600 on 2/27/04. As of 3/29, I still had no build date. I gave dealer a hard time, and asked if I could renig on the order and find one on another lot. He said it would be impossible to find, and that there is no way he could do the same deal.

Low and behold, I did an internet search and found exacty what I was looking for (White, 6 speed, quad, 4x4, slt, CTD) and told him I would like to cancel order and drive 200 miles to make a deal on the one I found. Believe it or not, he COULD make me the same deal on the one I found, AND do the dealer trade, bringing it onto his local lot!

Got it done by March 31, so all rebates apply. I am very pleased with the truck. It drives great! Acceleration is smooth, shifting is smooth, no vibrations, no problems. So far, drove about 30 miles around town and some country. Computer is showing 16.9 mpg. I'm very happy with that for a new truck.

Just wanted to let you know about my dealer experience. I am VERY pleased to be a converted CTD owner.

Maccandy

Glad to hear you are happy with your dealer. I too am being treated very well by mine, Antioch Dodge in N. Calif. It's to bad that all dealers could not act in a professional manner. They will deliver the truck to me tomorrow!!

iwantaCUMMINS

Thats awesome man, congratulations.

wexman

Congrats Plowtruck. See my post here too. My dealer was being idiotic as well, so I went to a different one.

wexman

Haven't had a chance to read the manual yet. HOW do you set that danged computer, both for mileage and time of day?

plowtruck

I just pushed buttons until it read avg mpg, then hit reset, and watch it go. I think it just averages mpg since hitting the reset. It continues to be around 16.9 or 17.0 after several stops.

Jonesey

Plowtruck is correct. Just cycle through the modes and hit reset. There is not a clock on the OHC but there is an hour meter. It is elapsed time since last reset. The clock is on the radio display. To get a real idea of mileage rack up some miles before resetting the OHC. The mileage varies too much if you reset it too often. Folks are always bragging how they are getting astronomical mileage. An example would be to reset the OHC while coasting down a long grade with the truck in neutral. Wow I am getting 99 MPG! This thing rocks! Not! To be a little more realistic I let mine rack up about 8000 miles the last time before resetting it. I averaged 17.8 MPG. This covered many types of driving conditions including winter blend fuel and some warm up time before driving off, which was never more than five minutes of idling. Congrats I am glad your wait is finally over. Enjoy!

wexman

OK, so THAT is the hour meter. I'm learning, I'm learning.

Jonesey

The hour meter in the OHC can be reset. The actual engine hour meter is accessed by first turning on the key and then push and hold the trip-odometer button in for appx. ten seconds. I believe this is the correct procedure. It is also covered in your owners manual. Lots of good reading in there.

plowtruck

Just completed 200 mile trip with brand new truck. Reset the computer at truck purchase and have not reset since then. Average after trip was 18.6! Wow, am I pleased. The ride was very pleasurable. This thing does not drive like a 3/4 ton truck.

guidster

Is anyone else but me bummed out that the computer display has changed from the one that I have in my 02? Specifically, I have average MPG and what it is running at in real time on 2 different displays. In other words, I could watch the MPG as it fluctuates without having to reset the average MPG. I enjoyed playing with it on trips. Oh, well small deal, but I just question why they decided to remove this function.

Jonesey

Yep! Bummed too. I also liked that feature on my last CTD. The dreaded bean counter strikes again. What are they thinking? Less for more!

thames1948

Wow, with that kind of milage, are you sure it's a 600? If it is, you are really lucky and are really miles ahead [ or miles more out of a tank full ] of most of us 600 owners.

plowtruck

No, its not a 600, as I had initially ordered. I got cold feet, and found a 2004, 555 on a dealer lot. Sorry, I just changed my signature.