Complaint volume
657 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2021 Ram 1500 Complaints
657 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Ram 1500, grouped by component category.
657 Total complaints
26 Crash reports
4 Fire reports
17 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are engine, unknown or other, electrical system. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 26 crash reports, 4 fire reports, 17 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 105 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 37,057 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to engine, unknown or other, electrical system?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2021 Ram 1500?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2021 Ram 1500
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Ram 1500 complaints?
26 Crash
4 Fire
17 Injury
0 Fatality
36 Towed
14 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Ram 1500 complaint categories?
ENGINE 83
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 47
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 44
POWER TRAIN 43
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 36
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 30
STEERING 24
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE,ENGINE 22
AIR BAGS 18
STRUCTURE 15
657 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2022 | ENGINE | Vehicle’s engine randomly shuts off while making slow turns. Error message appears saying to shift to park before starting engine then auto park engages. Vehicle restarts with issue and Ram dealer claims no codes or ability to reproduce, however acknowledged this is a documented issued and they currently don’t have a fix. No warning or codes prior. This is very dangerous as it is a loss of propulsion while turning in traffic. The second time it happened it almost caused a very serious wreck and vehicles had to serve to miss broadsiding me as I tried to restart my Vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ENGINE | Five minutes into my commute while making a low speed right turn from a stop, my vehicle stalled and shutoff in the middle of the road nearly causing an accident. Once stopped it automatically applied the emergency brake. This is apparently a known issue with the e-torque system. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ENGINE | Truck stalled at low speed and would not start couple mins later started and ebrake was on very dangerous was in a bad spot for this to happen with two kids in the car | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | STEERING,POWER TRAIN,ENGINE | After letting the truck warm up for at least 3 to 5 minutes, got in the truck and drove less than a mile and came to a second stop the engine stalled. Also I do not have the E torque system. I've also had an issue from day one a purchase of the truck and even filed a complaint with FCA about my stability control activating on certain turns under 30 miles an hour. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ENGINE | Purchased this brand new truck back in July, 2021. As of today, it only has 7,200 miles on it. It has been hesitant when I press on the gas, as if it is going to stall out. I just figured it was because of the auto start/stop feature so I usually try to remember to disengage it. Then it shut off completely on me two different times this past week while I was making a right hand turn. When the engine shut off, the emergency brake engaged. I brought it to the dealer where I purchased the vehicle and they said no codes came up. They also test drove it and found no issues. I am very concerned for my safety and need this problem looked into. I belong to a Ram forum and it seems like many, many people are experiencing the same issues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | SERVICE BRAKES,ENGINE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Engine stalls and applies emergency brake has happened two times first on 2/16/22 other on 3/2/22 | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ENGINE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Today 02/27/2022 2021 Ram Etorque 5.7 Engine stalled while vehicle was braking at stop sign at a low speed, vehicle rolled to a stop. Auto emergency brake deployed and the auto shift engaged putting my truck from drive to park before i could place the vehicle in Neutral. I was able to restart the truck on first try after being stuck in the middle of the intersection. Disengaged parking brake and drove off. No error message or codes on dash. 5 year old son was in backseat of vehicle. Truck has 15k miles | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Truck stops running, fuel shuts off but power stays on. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ENGINE | Driving on a 35 mph highway and slowed to 10/15 mph to make a left turn and engine stopped running. Drifted to get out of intersection and when almost stopped the e brake locked on. Restarted vehicle and continued driving. Vehicle has 10911 miles and 3/4 full on gas. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | STEERING,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | I was turning left at a stop sign. As I turned, at a low speed, the enigine shutoff. I lost use of the electric steering and the truck came to a stop. The parking brake automatically engaged. Putting the brakes on, I placed the truck in park and restarted the engine. It started back up. I disengaged the parking brake and took off. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The truck shut off while driving. Driving and taking turns between 5-15mph Truck just shuts down and engages the parking brake.I almost got hit 2 times. The truck is brand new with 4,000 mikes on it. The first time it happened I had 2,000 miles on it. After reading online this is a big problem and someone is going to be killed. This need ti be addressed | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | Within first mile of operation within neighborhood while accelerating through away from stop sign executing a left hand turn traveling below 15 mph the vehicle stalls. Truck immediately automatically engages parking brake forcing sudden stop. Issue has occurred intermittently at least once a month since purchase. Vehicle is not set for auto emergency braking. This issue is a significant safety issue for anyone on roads. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Automatic emergency braking has failed to operate on several occasions, the warning flashes 'brake' but the truck never applies any brakes. If I was not able to slam on brakes myself and dive into another lane safely I would have crashed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Driving down the freeway using adaptive cruise control it was working very well, a car pulled in front of me and my truck slowed down. The car in front shortly after moved out of the way from in front of me. My truck immediately started accelerating hard to get back up to the initial speed. Traffic had come to a sudden stop in front of me but my truck continued to accelerate hard towards the now stationary traffic. I had to slam on my brakes and dive onto the shoulder else I would have wrecked. A similar situation happened a few days later when approaching a traffic light there was a car already stopped at the light. I had a car in front of me which was braking, my truck correctly slowed down. Just before coming to a stop the car in front switched lanes, my truck then punched it as if trying to get back up to the initial speed with a stationary car less than 2 car lengths in front of my I had to slam on the brakes else I would have slammed into the back of the stationary car. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | We came to a stop sign. Went to press the gas to proceed into the road with on coming traffic. The truck started to accelerate and then the engine cut off. The emergency braking system was engaged and the dash light reflected that. After a few seconds we were able to restart the truck. Luckily just before we were hit by other vehicles since we were left in the middle of a busy road with morning traffic in both directions. I do not feel safe driving this truck. I quickly googled the issue and found many other threads of complaints with the same issue. Please do the research on this before people are killed! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ENGINE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Making a right turn under 20mph and the truck shut off on me . Got the "Shift to P to Start" message, followed by "Shifter Autocorrect Active", then after restarting got the message "Park Brake Auto Engaged Press Brake + Push Switch to Release" and "Safe-Hold Temporarily Disabled" and "AutoPark Disabled". | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | Vehicle simply turned off while driving at slow speed. Once I pulled over and place it in park and started it back like nothing happened. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | I almost died, when my truck stalled as I was entering a major thoroughfare. This primarily has to do with the auto start/stop option on my Ram, which if you do not come to a complete stop, and attempt to accelerate with this feature on, the vehicle stalls. This has happened to me several times, and if you go on the online forums it is happening to many other Ram drivers, it is a serious safety issue, as you have no control over the stall due to the computer. Basically, when I am coming to a stop and then accelerate with the vehicle at a slow crawl, 2-3 MHP, the truck stalls. Imagine rolling through a yield sign and your vehicle stalling, with oncoming traffic headed your way, serious safety issue. Extremely lucky to not have been involved in a crash with oncoming traffic headed my way going 55 MPH, I was able to stay in the yield lane. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ENGINE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While traveling over a speed bump at approximately 5 mph, truck will stall, "autocorrect shift" and apply emergency brake. Vehicle is a 2021 eTorque. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,SERVICE BRAKES,ENGINE | Once again this truck is still having the same issues! I was on the local freeway going 60 and all of a sudden the truck brakes and shuts off while in in the express lane! [XXX]! How was our safety at risk? Really? I don't understand how these trucks haven't been recalled yet RAM recalled and bought back 2022 Rams due to defrosting issues. Apparently trucks breaking and stopping out of nowhere isn't a big deal but lets not make folks wipe their windows...So many of these Ram 1500 have the same issues and what?! STELLANTIS DOES NOT CARE! No warning lights came on yet again but just decides to brake and shut off. This isn't the first incident! Again I was fortunate to no get hit! But my nerves, mental/emotional status, and scares are enough injuries! Please see ram forms, social media, etc there are so many others with these issues that haven't reported to NHTSA! INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). | Crash: No Fire: No Injuries: 1 Medical attention | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | I was driving down the road at 55 when the truck had a throttle error would not respond and shut down. I started it back up same errors would not go over 30 mph almost causing an accident causing someone to hit me from behind. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | While driving my truck at approximately 70MPH on the highway, the truck shut down. I was able to pull off the side of the road and dashboard showed the message of Electronic Throttle Control and the engine light turned on. This is the third report I have filed regarding this truck shutting down while driving and the 7th time this truck has randomly shut down on me since purchasing in July 2021. This has been on the dealership 2 separate times and is going in tomorrow for a third time for this issue, I no longer feel safe driving this truck and feel this incident should be address as soon as possible, | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | As I’m preparing to turn on the road the vehicle turns off and leaves me stranded in the middle of the roadway. The parking brake comes on and messages appear on the dash. This has happened multiple times with and without passengers in the vehicle. I’ve reported it to Lithia Ram Jeep in Calallen and was brushed off. I’ve taken pictures of the dash on a few occasions when it occurred. I am the first owner and it happened with less than 3-5 k miles. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | STRUCTURE | I purchased the new vehicle in May 2021. As a single individual, normally I am alone in the vehicle. While on a trip to Florida my niece was sitting in the rear-passenger seat with the window partially open and sustained a very slight cut on her forearm from the window. After inspection, there is a visible deformation of the glass. Back in Chicago I waiting until my first oil change was due and reported the glass defect to the dealer service department. The service manager decided that the glass was not defective but possibly damaged by transport from the factory. They refused to address the issue. I contacted Ram customer service and was told to keep visiting other dealers until I find one willing to address the issue. Auto door window glass is Tempered and if damaged during transport, would have shattered. Also as evident in the attached photos, there is no damage to the outside of the glass where transport damage would have occurred, plus the area where the defect is visible would have been enclosed within the door frame during transport. My concern is the possibility of another individual cutting themselves on the deformed glass. I am even more concerned that the structural integrity of the glass might be compromised by the defect and the glass shattering in a passenger's face without warning. | Crash: No Fire: No Injuries: 1 | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,BACK OVER PREVENTION | Truck showed "Service Electronic Throttle"... Truck has 13,000 miles on it. Along with the service code, rear view camera doesn't work, backup sensors don't work, and remote start will not operate. No apparent throttle issues, but concerned for safety with rear view camera and backup sensors not operating. It would be nice to have the remote start as its winter, but only an inconvenience for that matter. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |