Lawsuit Claims Ram ProMaster Only Uses 7 Gears When Customers Paid For 9

If you bought nine apples, but later found that you couldn't eat two of them, how many apples do you have? Technically you still have nine, but in practice you only have seven that you can use. Such an argument is the basis of yet another lawsuit against Stellantis (though probably without the apples). Top Class Actions reports that Victor Gonzalez and Stuart Glick have filed a class action lawsuit against Stellantis, alleging that the company falsely advertised that the 2022 and 2023 Ram ProMaster vans as having a 9-speed automatic transmission. To be clear, that transmission does contain nine separate gear ratios, an upgrade from the 6-speed transmission offered through 2021. That is not in question. 

What the lawsuit alleges is that these vans are so slow, they never get around to engaging eighth or ninth gear, making them effectively 7-speeds instead. The lawsuit further claims that Stellantis promised that the higher gear ratios in the nine-speed transmission's top gears would reduce engine RPM compared to the old 6-speed. Numerically, that is true. However, it's only true in practice if the transmission actually uses those highest gears. The lawsuit alleges it does not, making the new transmission effectively the same as the old one.

It also claims that Stellantis either was or should have been aware of this issue, yet chose to ignore it and market the vans as having 9-speed transmissions. Which technically, they do, regardless of whether they use all the gears or not. (In the past, DaimlerChrysler once did precisely the opposite, selling a 6-speed transmission with only four or five of those gears enabled.)

All ProMasters, regardless of size, use the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 that Stellantis drops into almost everything it makes. It made 280 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque in the 2022 Promaster. It was the base engine in the Dodge Charger that year, which Car and Driver said "lacks the giddy-up of front-drivers such as the Nissan Maxima." That's not exactly high praise. Put that same V6 into a giant box on wheels, and it's fair to say it's working hard under the ProMaster's hood and might not be up to the task, as the lawsuit claims.

However, there is one factor that could take the wind out of this argument's sails: the Ford Transit. I own a 2021 model, and got the tallest, longest version they make to turn into my camper van. It has a 3.5-liter V6 (not the optional EcoBoost) that makes 275 hp and 262 lb-ft of torque, comparable numbers to the Pentastar. It has a ten-speed transmission, so you might not expect the Transit to ever reach its higher gears, either. But it does. 

I've put about 20,000 miles on my Transit driving to all four corners of the country. It doesn't reach tenth gear much when I'm towing my enclosed motorcycle trailer in Tow/Haul mode, but that mode favors the lower gears for more power. It'll still go into tenth on a flat, open highway. In Normal mode without the trailer, it won't use anything but the high gears at highway speeds, and makes good use of all ten cogs as appropriate for conditions.

While many of my van life friends have ProMasters, I haven't driven any, so I haven't had the opportunity to put the lawsuit's allegations to the test myself. I can say that it's possible to put a transmission with a lot of gears into a van of this general size, shape, and horsepower, and have it use all those gears. It may be the ProMaster's gear ratios or unique transmission programming that make the difference, if what the lawsuit alleges is true. That's a big "if," which is yet to play out in court.