Man Buys A Used Ram Truck. Then His Wife Notices A ‘Mildew’ Smell. It Gets Worse: ‘I Called The Dealership’

"I like the truck a lot, so..."

Man buys a RAM truck. Then his wife notices a ‘mildew’ smell. It gets worse

Photo by: thatslowg56

Stacy Fernandez

By: Stacy Fernandez

May 13, at 11:00am ET

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Buying a used truck is already a gamble, but often people tend to assume things will be better when they go directly through a dealership.

This one turned out to have a water leak that was leaving a nasty mildew smell. But when the owner confronted the dealership about it, he says the options they gave him were unacceptable.

In a TikTok with more than 124,000 views, content creator @thatslowg56 stands outside in his recently purchased used Ram truck with all the doors open, backseats folded down.

He said his wife kept picking up a faint mildew smell inside the truck, and while he smelled it too he talked himself out of it thinking maybe a window got left down or maybe it was nothing.

"I like the truck a lot, so I was kind of overlooking it,” he says.

But when he started pulling gear out of the backseat he discovered the carpet underneath was completely saturated.

"This whole back carpet is freaking soaking wet," he says. "I mean bad. You can't feel it from the top, you can only feel it from the bottom. That pad underneath there is sopped."

The front floorboards were dry, which led him to believe the leak was coming from the rear, either the back window or the sunroof. His best guess was the back window seal.

Here's where it gets worse.

Before buying the truck, he had specifically asked the salesman about water leaking in. He says the salesman guaranteed him in writing, specifically via text message, that the truck did not have a leak.

He called the dealership and after some pushback, they offered him two options: return the truck and tear up the contract, or keep it as-is. They would not fix it. Now he’s not sure what to do.

Know Your Rights

When a salesman makes a specific written guarantee about a vehicle's condition and that turns out to be false, it can void the typical limits on a buyer's options on a used car sale.

According to LawDistrict, even buyers who purchase a car "as-is" don't necessarily lose all their rights under lemon laws, particularly when the seller failed to disclose known defects. The Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act, the federal baseline, adds another layer: when a written warranty exists, implied warranties cannot simply be disclaimed away.

As for state law, Kelley Blue Book notes that all 50 states have lemon laws on the books, but most apply primarily to new vehicles. A handful of states—including California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Texas—extend those protections to used car purchases as well.

In states that don't explicitly cover used vehicles under their lemon laws, the specifics of the sale matter: if a dealer made representations about the vehicle's condition that turned out to be false, that can open the door to a fraud or misrepresentation claim separate from lemon law entirely.

The first step in any situation like this is documentation. Keep all text messages, repair estimates, and communications with the dealership. The statute of limitations on these claims varies by state, typically running one to four years from the date of purchase.

Ram Owners Say They’re Familiar With This Leak

Based on comments on various forums, the issue with leaking seals on the back window in Ram trucks is fairly well known.

People who commented on @thaslowg56’s post agreed.

“Back window … had mine replaced,” one suggested.

“It's usually the cab vents between the cab and bed,” another thought.

What do you think?

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Comments

“It's those plastic vents behind the seat; they got updated version of them. They bad to leak. It's a cheap fix,” a commenter wrote.

Motor1 reached out to @thatslowg56 for comment via TikTok direct message and comment and Ram via email. We'll be sure to update this if they respond.

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