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

Probably standard pentastar issues.. Oil filter housing, plastic cooling system bits, etc. All of that can be replaced with aluminum parts now.

Assuming they still use the "truck" version of the 62TE, 6spd AT, it's hard to believe parts are that exotic of expensive for those.
 
Probably standard pentastar issues.. Oil filter housing, plastic cooling system bits, etc. All of that can be replaced with aluminum parts now.

Assuming they still use the "truck" version of the 62TE, 6spd AT, it's hard to believe parts are that exotic of expensive for those.
Fiat will not stop surprising you.....
 
I work at a ram dealer and am the tech for the vans. The drivers beat the living hell out of them. Like tires come in bald around 10k miles. They break axles, kill transmissions, usually break the mirrors off or at least enough they need replaced per Amazon

They are all contractors (joe schmo buys 20 vans and makes money having drivers deliver packages for Amazon).

The vans when taken care of aren’t bad at all.
 
the ducato has lots of advantages over the competition here.

ford probably considered bringing in the wrong wheel drive transit at some point
 
We service and sell a bunch. Any that are taken care of dont have many issues. Any of the delivery one seem to get the **** run out of them and have more issues. Our parts van just rolled 180k and only issue has just been a rad this week. Still original trans , axles, and motor has not been opened.
 
I work at a ram dealer and am the tech for the vans. The drivers beat the living hell out of them. Like tires come in bald around 10k miles. They break axles, kill transmissions, usually break the mirrors off or at least enough they need replaced per Amazon

They are all contractors (joe schmo buys 20 vans and makes money having drivers deliver packages for Amazon).

The vans when taken care of aren’t bad at all.
I'll echo this. I have a buddy that is the service manager for one of the largest Mercedes dealerships in the state. He's told me in the past that the Amazon guys beat the everloven snot out of their vans. Breaking things that 'don't break' and the like.

Haven't paid attention lately to what brand of van their running in this area these days. Not that I don't get a ton of packages from them, I just haven't been paying attention.
 
Here they run promaster, sprinter, and transit. Really anything they can get and it’s a preference perhaps of the contractor as well

Inventory is hard to get. Amazon is putting a lot of vans on the roads
 

I wonder if this has anything to do with it. I saw a couple Rivian Amazon delivery trucks this week. Possibly Amazon had a lease agreement on some of the Ram Promaster vans and turned them into the dealership.
 
The ducato vans aren't terrible over here in europe, no worse than mercedes or ford, definitely better rust proofing.

But the dodge versions are likely significantly different, pretty much every ducato is a manual transmission diesel.
 
The ducato vans aren't terrible over here in europe, no worse than mercedes or ford, definitely better rust proofing.

But the dodge versions are likely significantly different, pretty much every ducato is a manual transmission diesel.

Was here to make this comment!

They're everywhere over here and are generaly solid and reliable. You usually either have a 2.3 Fiat diesel engine or a 2.2 Peugeot/Citreon diesel engine mated to a 6 speed manual.
 
Guess what made it into my bay today? Only idled long enough to put the bay door back down and it made this big of a mess. 17k likes on a 2018. Idk who said 2017 and ups shouldn’t be problematic, bc all ours are 2018s and are junk.



Almost forgot, at 17k it’s already had 5 tires replaced and needs 2 today, and the a pillar is ripped (I guess this is what guys are calling “doors fall off”). The a pillars rip (usually way worse than this) and the door checks rip away from the a pillar.
 

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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.
The local FCA and Ford dealer has Amazon vans and cop cars there at all times. The local Toyota dealer was in a way the local Uber Green Light/Lyft driver Depot - 60% of their business in the before times was Uber, I recall seeing the service drive full of Uber-tagged Prii once.

Personally, Ford or GM should have built an Amazon special based off the Econoline or Express/Savana platform. Cheap, proven, any hack at Firestone, Midas or Big O can work on it with the best Chineseium from AZ/Advance/O’Reilly.
 
Finally got an oil cooler in stock to get this van back on the road. We’ve been using the Dorman ones, but now back to OEM for some reason, assuming availability. This one is the worst I’ve had yet, literally leaving a trail to the bay. Valley has overflowed with coolant and oil and is pumping out very fast causing the trail. With the oil cooler off, you can’t even see the sealing surfaces except the one, due to the depth of fluid collecting.

E5A4DCB4-ADEC-41CF-9A07-DC19471D807D.jpeg
 

I wonder if this has anything to do with it. I saw a couple Rivian Amazon delivery trucks this week. Possibly Amazon had a lease agreement on some of the Ram Promaster vans and turned them into the dealership.
One of these delivered a package of K&N motor oil to me last month.
 
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