2018 Ram Promaster City Review - Is It Better Than A Ford Transit?

[@mondoenterprises6710]

I have a Ram Promaster City 2017 and I am loving it. Took the seats out and use it as a cargo van. No problems yet. I baby it. Battery went bad after 3 years. The audio kinda sucks 4 " paper speakers. I love that this guy showed me the back camera on while driving. Even with my back windows that is handy. Putting some jbl 6.5 speakers in the doors to beef up the sound. No problems yet. Hope to do some camping and have done some light trailering with it 4x8. So will trailer camp with it and sleep inside, carry camp gear in trailer.

[@tomcollins5377]

I just bought a 2020 Pro master city cargo to use for camp. I think it's easy to drive comfortable , I found the gauges difficult to see but all and all I like it. I've been driving vans off and on for 42 years now. This is my 8th van

[@plantbasedvanlife2270]

How’s oil use?

[@The_Opinion_of_Matt]

I have one of these as a company car, mine is a 2018 as well. It was assigned to me in January of 2018 with 6800 miles approximately. Today is August 17, 2020 and it crossed 98,000 miles today. Not sure how the one you tested is only showing 6800 miles.?. I call mine the RAM ProAm. Why? Because it is an amateur attempt by professionals. Harsh? Maybe, but it is accurate. Don't get me wrong. There are some things that RAM did wonderfully. The handling is awesome, until it is scary (more on the scary later). The headlights are fantastic. The cruise control is great and it will actually downshift when going down a mountain in order to try and stay at the set speed. And I mean downshift until the engine is at or near redline. Never had anything do that before. The backup camera is great. The infotainment system works great. I like the two power outlets as well (mine has a third in the back). Something smart they did is if the gas tank door is open you can't open the sliding door that is on the same side. The reason for that is the sliding door would hit the open gas tank door. The defroster button also turns on the heated mirror and both work great. Mine has the rear windows, but the sides are all steel. The manual function on the transmission seems like crap until you realize it really is just a manual gear selector. More on the transmission later. The engine is okay, but up until I drove this van I never really knew what they meant when the said an engine sounded like a swarm of angry bees (hint: this engine sounds like that when reved out. Now for the bad. Some of these are WTF were they thinking. The first thing I noticed was that the one -> two shift on the transmission was really rough. I tried putting it in manual mode and only shifting down to second, but it downshifted to first anyway. I later realized that it is a maximum gear selector, not a manu-matic. Once you know this you can use it correctly. What do I mean by correctly? Well, this is the same ZF 9-speed transmission that is used in the currently Jeep Cherokee. The release of the first of the new Cherokees was delayed by 6 months because of transmission software. That is what Car & Driver reported that Jeep said. From driving it I'm not sure if there are still transmission software issues or if they didn't put enough processor power in the transmission computer because it is easy to catch this transmission flat-footed. Say you are driving around the loop leading to a interstate merging lane. The transmission shifts to 8th or 9th gear to save fuel because you are going 25, 30, 35, 40 mph and off throttle. Then you get to point of accelerating and you put your foot in it. You can find yourself waiting, and waiting, and waiting for it to find the 3rd. Why do I say 3rd? Because that is the gear I use for merging 95% of the time. When merging slide the transmission into "manual" mode and shift down to 3rd or 4th. You don't have to be exact, just reduce the number of gears that the transmission needs to downshift for the acceleration you are telling it you want with your right foot. Remember it is a maximum gear selector. If you select 5th and then floor it, it will downshift. The second thing I noticed was the sun visors. If you have read this far I know what you are thinking. "Sun visors??? WTF could be wrong with the sun visors?" Well, put the sun visor down and the bottom of it does not make a horizontal line. The bottom of the visor is at about a 15-20 degree angle to the ground. The right side of the visor might be blocking your forward vision, but the left side won't be. I was thoroughly confused as to why anyone would design it this way. Then, one day I moved the sun visor to block the sun coming in the drivers door window and all of a sudden the bottom of the visor made a horizontal line. That's right they designed the sun visor for the drivers side window, not the windshield. The third thing I have a problem with is the side view mirrors. They look like they would be good. They have a little convex mirror on the bottom. They are taller than they are wide, sorta like tow mirrors on a pickup truck. I will say the passenger side mirror is okay and I think that is because the bigger top mirror is a little convex too ("Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" indicates a convex mirror). However, the driver side mirror is crap. The little mirror on the bottom isn't adjustable on either side. The upper mirror on the driver side I have adjusted out as far as it will go in order to try and eliminate the blind spot, which is a huge blind spot for such a small vehicle. And the little bottom "blind spot" mirror is no help. In the little mirror you can't see anything that is above the bottom of the drivers door window. This I've found creates a safety problem at night. Vehicles that are certain height disappear. These are usually in the crossover size range. Their headlights are above what the driver can see in the little mirror, but not in the view of the upper mirror. I've tried multiple different mirror positions on the adjustable one, but nothing has helped, cars just disappear. What's that you say? Just turn my head and look? I'm glad you brought that up. It brings me to the next thing... Seating position. First something minor about the seating position. The drivers seat, yeah it isn't facing forward. What do I mean? Well, it is rotated a few degrees to the right. Think high school algebra where you had the X and Y axis and you had to do the math and plot/draw the curve. Well if your X axis is facing forward and the Y axis is up. Take the drivers seat X axis and rotate it a few degrees to the right of the vans X axis. It took me a few months of driving the van to pick up on that. This means your spine is always rotated to the left slightly, which is bad for ergonomics and doesn't help the fact that the deteriorated disk in my neck reduces my necks range of motion to the left. Not to mention that the seat is pretty far back in this van, behind the B pillar actually. This means you have to lean forward and look around the B pillar (turning your neck further) in order to check the blind spot. Oh also, the seats are really far away from the doors. This van is built on the same chassis as the Cherokee, which is based on a European Fiat chassis for something. I know the ProAm City is based on the Fiat Doblo also. I know the Cherokee they widened the chassis for the U.S. market because they determined it was too narrow for our market (fat americans? maybe? I don't know, I'm at least 40 pounds overweight myself so I mean no offense to our intrepid reviewer). Any back to the van. The seats are right up against the center console, so close I can just fit my fingers between the seat and console to retrieve something I've dropped. However, on the door side I could probably fit my thigh between the seat and the door. You have to reach to rest you arm on the door armrest. So to check the blind spot you have to lean forward, lean all the way left and turn your body further to just get a quick glance, which you end up moving so far it can't be a quick glance. For reference, the amount of movement needed to check the blind spot on the ProAm, if I moved that much in my Tundra I would be sticking my head out the window of the Tundra. What else, what else, I've already written so much... oh, I mentioned scary handling earlier. The ProAm actually handles pretty good normally, almost deserving of the normal ProAm connotation. It would probably be pretty good in a 24 hours of Lemons race. However, every time the tires are rotated on mine the handling is scary for about the first week. I'm not sure if it was the cheap "Ironman" brand tires that were put on a while back or if something is broken. No shops have found anything broken. So what do I mean by scary. 1). DO NOT take your hands off the wheel because the van will dive for the ditch. A few weeks after the tire rotation you can take your hands off the wheel and it will drive perfectly straight. 2). More recently, especially after two of the Ironman tires were replaced with better Firestone tires the handling became nervous at freeway speeds. Change lanes on wet pavement and you will feel the van get a little sideways. Do a quick little handling test I like of just a quick and steady left-right-left staying in the lane and not going to fast. Well, do that test and the back of the van will do a couple more oscillations after I stop moving the wheel. I actually have treat it as if I'm correcting a skid. It is good I have some autocross experience and fairly good understanding of performance driving concepts (for a non-pro, non-coach) because I'm not sure an average driver wouldn't have crashed. Keep in mind I have track experience and I'm saying the handling is scary. Then, two weeks after a tire rotation it is fine. It is very strange. I've thought of doing a video review of the van I have. I would be covering the same things I wrote here though.

[@obskureracing7146]

Its gonna be okay Matt....its gonna be okay.

[@The_Opinion_of_Matt]

@@obskureracing7146 I'm supposed to get a new vehicle soon. Maybe, just maybe the will let me get something other than the ProAm.

[@dillonh321]

@@The_Opinion_of_Matt The other small cargo vans available in the US are not much better. Nissan NV200 has the Jatco CVT and the Ford Transit is probably the nicest one as far as the general non-mechanical parts BUT they have an extremely high transmission failure rate as well.

[@federal6616]

I was trying to figure out which one was good but I'll wait

[@crippyandkaatje]

Thanks that's super helpful!

[@969thewhip]

I just got put in a 2021 version of this at my work. 7000 miles in I got rear ended and waiting for it to get fixed. I can compare this to the NV200 since I was in that for 100,000 miles. This has more cargo room and better exceloration then the NV. Also the screen interface works a lot smoother. I can say that the NV has held up very well and with no major issues. As for the Promaster, time will tell.

[@sylviau7901]

I've watched a lot of car reviews. You are thorough, informative, unbiased and entertaining. Thanks, it will help me in making my purchase.

[@CoolStuffInWeirdCars]

Just wanted to mention, the button for the rear defroster is probably heated mirrors as well. My dad's old Ram had the same situation with a button that only controlled the mirrors. Nice video!

[@HorsepowerHouse]

Most cars today use the rear defroster button to turn on heated mirrors. Especially Dodge Ram Jeep Chrysler models.

[@rv9990]

Hi Zach! Thanks for reviewing these normal cars 😄😄

[@rvh77]

I got a cheap Chinese knock-off throttle controller for mine on ebay and it does help the driving experience quite noticeably. It was about $50.

[@JoeJoe4P]

You missed the control buttons on the back of the steering wheel, the defroster is for the mirrors, and the rear doors open to 180 degrees. Oh and the very nice trip computers in the radio display. I love my 2016. Also the PMC is built on a truck platform the Transit is built on a car platform. Other than that a nice review.

[@HorsepowerHouse]

I'm sure when you find the time to do a video - you can cover what you felt was "missed."

[@ArcticAstrophysics]

I hate this van. We have this exact vehicle for our delivery van at my work. Let me preface, we got it brand new no miles, and we have a bunch of sensors and cameras so we can't: speed, accelerate hard, decelerate hard, turn to quickly, hit bumps too hard or it will send a report to upper management and video record us. So 99.9% of the time it is driven with extreme care and never abused. This van is the worst vehicle I've ever driven. It shifts erratically, like as soon as you start to accelerate it immediately shifts from first to second and kind of throws you forward then back in to your seat. There is a very noticeable lag between when you hit the gas pedal and the engine responds. Like if you're going 45 and want to accelerate pretty quickly to 55 to merge onto a highway or something, I've counted a 2.5 second delay between when I press on the accelerator pedal and when the engine actually responds. At low speeds it is not a problem. The factory tires are garbage. We have had all 3 of 4 factory tires go flat within a year and they have all been replaced and we haven't had a problem since. Now on to the biggest issue, the 2.4L engine burns SO MUCH OIL. Our company has it changed every 5k miles but we HAVE to add oil before then because it will literally be 2-3 quarts low if not. Before we knew about the problem it would die in the middle of traffic MULTIPLE times because the computer shuts off the engine with too low of oil pressure. It burns a quart of oil about every 1500-2000 miles. And now the engine shakes so bad. If you're stopped at a red light the steering wheel visibly shakes extremely bad and you can feel the whole car shaking. It has about 75,000 miles now and I can't wait until they trade it in for something new

[@ogalief]

Holy shit, I drive the same van for work and have the same issues. Has the ride quality of a shopping cart. Feels like a death trap. Takes forever to warm up in the winter. Today the transmission blew up in it. Had roughly 91,000kms on it. Wouldn't move out of the parking spot. Give it time and yours will probably blow up too

[@kaitjuchniewicz5068]

Anyone know the length of the cargo space behind the chairs? I've been finding specs from 60-87.2" inches, a wild difference when planning a good camper layout!

[@jay_321]

Some of the vans come with rear seats. Without the rear seats, the cargo floor is 87.2".

[@johnstutz4458]

Guy, You do a great job in your reviews ! This was most helpful, keep up the good work and I wish you success with your KZbin venture ...

[@louiszepher666]

Would like to know reliability of these cars

[@crippyandkaatje]

Awesome presentation and information ☺️ Thank you!

[@Astonvanquishs]

God it's so odd to see the fiat fiorino with a dodge badge

[@fabyrbl8177]

idk dude here its called the doblo but it used to be called the dublo or something stupid...

[@turbo_alice]

doblo in france too. we have both fiorino and doblo at work, and it's the doblo's interior here

[@Astonvanquishs]

F on my end!😅 I meant Doblò

[@danielcoronado1757]

The rear door actually open wider there a yellow lever for that

[@ikust007]

Excellent.

[@Ireland-bc2gx]

The point of this Van' is for work not raceing

[@EverythingsBeenDone]

You good player! Keep it up.

[@loissmith4442]

I appreciate your reference to the Ross and Rachel break-up! LOL I would love to hear what you would buy (if you were me - a single female looking to buy a small van to convert to a conversion for small trips) which one would you buy? I appreciate your time. Lois

[@ShootingCars]

I would recommend the Ford Transit Connect. I have a review of that one as well. Same idea as this van but I’ve heard they are way more reliable than this Promaster and they drive way better in my opinion. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqu4aIqLmZWrZ9k

[@loissmith4442]

@@ShootingCars Thanks for you quick response!! Appreciate it very much! I will check out your other review on the Ford Transit Connect!! Happy Weekend! (it seems after my research out of all the vehicles out there for what I need, the Ford Transit Connect would be the best choice!)

[@rickyperkins232]

@@ShootingCars can you get a sheet of drywall in the back and close the door?

[@gmaclaren]

How much trailer weight will it tow?

[@j73stuart]

i can't see tie downs in the ram? Are they any good? An important feature for cargo vans.

[@markcameroon6613]

would this towe an 1100 pound boat 15 footer with trailer and all also would the 2.0 ford transit do so?

[@HorsepowerHouse]

No

[@keithheffernan864]

They burn oil at a crazy rate... no oil light... mine is a 2017, getting rid of it at 46,000 miles. Takes 10 min to heat engine so it won’t buck. I wouldn’t buy again.

[@Nebuchadnezzar18]

If you wanna own this car, you better keep it maintained and know this, it burns oil. About a quart every 1000 miles.

[@turbo_alice]

0:11 is that Rose in the background ?

[@ShootingCars]

yup! old clip

[@popatop75]

i didn't know dodge and ram broke up, will dodge still work on the ram city and not treat it like a stepchild

[@keithc5729]

It's too bad that you never opened the back doors all the way. The doors open 180 degrees.

[@onecompass7290]

why don't they have a gps built into the vehicle?!!!

[@pickopenforever4206]

2019 models and newer transit connects are trashhhh

[@saltysealtech6172]

Why are the tags #chevy #tahoe and #tahoeprimer?

[@saltysealtech6172]

*#TahoePremier

[@ShootingCars]

I use the same template for my descriptions, fixed! Thank you!

[@GroguHK]

Made in TURKEY

[@MrBRIVIDO1982]

the fiat doblo was made inTurkey... the ram was made in USA

[@ogalief]

@@MrBRIVIDO1982 The Dodge Ram Promaster City that I drive for work says on the door jamb that it's made in Italy

[@1voiceofstl]

it is modified in N america. The drive train and sisoencion@@ogalief

[@varindersehra]

Useless van we bought brand new 2018 model first it drove nice but with only 36000 miles it started giving an engine knocking sound and also the steering wheel started shaking going downhill although we always took very good care of it as we uses it for groceries for our restaurant so we ended up in the dodge agency which cost us 2000 $ to fix the brakes and the knocking was fixed under recall I will soon just sell it and buy some other van

[@1voiceofstl]

a basr Caravan is bigger better and cheaper

[@Jerry_Levon]

Fiat doblo