Local Dodge dealer's lot looks like a broken down Amazon truck storage lot.

Joined
Dec 8, 2006
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Illinois
Just curious...

Does anyone else have a Dodge dealer who has a lot behind the dealership, that looks like a permanent Amazon delivery truck storage yard?

My local dealer constantly has around 20 Promaster Amazon delivery vans sitting behind the building, at any given moment. I assume that they are either waiting to be looked at, waiting for parts, or waiting to be fixed. It's at the point that they're parking them in the grass.

I'd expect to see 5 or maybe 10 at any given time, but this seems to be a shocking number of vehicles. Of course, I know...as the fleet ages, this will become more of an issue. It likely doesn't help much that they have a lot of Fiat DNA in them. And it likely doesn't help that the Dodge/Stellantis supply chain is involved here as well.

And most all of them have various degrees and severity of bumps, dents, scratches and scrapes. It is the 'walking wounded' fleet.

And no.... I'm not in Chicago or the suburbs... or in the St. Louis area. I'm in a rather rural part of the state.
 
Sounds like Amazon could be renting lot space from a weak Dodge dealership.
Watch that lot over the upcoming holiday gift delivery season.

edit: Recall or campaign with insufficient parts?
 
I have a few friends who are mechanics for different fleets where they use Promasters.

Those things are pure garbage. They don't hold a candle to an Econoline, Transit or Express!

The FWD packaging is cool ... I get that part of it. Seems like a cargo van should not have a penchant for the doors falling off.
 
Could be many number of things.

A very large Ford dealership here in the Dallas area has converted most of their parking lot for storage. RV storage and commercial truck storage being their primary.
 
They are unreliable and start falling apart after 18,000 miles according to someone that I know in the industry. My flooring contractor bought one and had all sorts of issues from the beginning. After a year he couldn't take it anymore and dumped it.
 
North of Atlanta - there are multiple lots across the county I work in with stored Amazon vans.
 
I suspect maybe some kind of storage agreement going on - I work for an auto group that has ford, dodge/ram etc, with an Amazon distribution center nearby. There is usually only a couple vans a month out back for service.
 
The Dodge Ram full size vans were better!

I'd love to own an old B series ram van! My grandmother had a 12 passenger B350 way back in the day. The front clips changed slightly but I love the late 70s / early 80s with the round headlights.

What's that unreliable?

The doors fall off. That's what my friends have found. That seems to be a pretty serious concern on a delivery vehicle where the doors open and close all day.
 
We have 2 in our fleet at work. They are horrible vehicles. They break often, expensive to fix and parts are not easy to get. Both had transmission failures before 50k miles and a replacement is about $8k. One of them was at the dealer for almost 2 months so they could figure out why the OBD2 connectors was dead and unable to smog test. Yes and the doors do fall off. The bolts work their way loose for some reason
 
I primarily work on these and the new Mercedes Metris in our fleet, and yes, they are junk. Every one that comes in for maintenance gets stuck in the shop for weeks waiting for a radiator, coolant expansion tank, oil cooler housing, motor mounts, water pump, thermostat, shocks or struts, cv axles, a pillar repairs (sent out to body shop), door cables and/or latches, etc etc.
 
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