2016 RAM Promaster: what breaks, and at what mileage

What breaks on the 2016 RAM Promaster

Owners have reported 20 named failure modes on the 2016 RAM Promaster, and the three most-reported carry 37% of everything filed.

Other engine problem leads with 8 reports and about 0.2 per 1,000 vehicles.

Other powertrain problem follows with 6 reports, median 55,000 miles.

Parking brake failure follows with 4 reports.

By system, the reports fall mostly into engine (10), transmission (7) and lighting (7).

What happens when these parts fail

Nothing in the reports on the 2016 RAM Promaster mentions a crash, a fire or an injury. That is the ordinary case and it is worth stating: most defect complaints are about a car that stopped working, not one that hurt somebody.

The average severity weight across every report on this year is 3.06, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.

What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: other engine problem at $300–$4,000, other powertrain problem at $400–$4,500, parking brake failure at $250–$1,300 and other electrical problem at $250–$2,000. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.

45% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.

How often, against how many were built

Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 2016 RAM Promaster draws about 1.3 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 74th percentile of complaint rates among 2016 vehicles we can rate.

That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.

The working figure is 37,034 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 2016 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.

Recalls on the 2016 model year

NHTSA has issued 15 recall campaigns covering the 2016 RAM Promaster, affecting an estimated 109,897 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.

The campaigns cover power train:automatic transmission:lever and linkage:column , engine and engine cooling:cooling system:fan and seats. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.

Recalls also distort complaint counts. Publicity about a campaign reminds owners that complaining is possible, so reports for a recalled component often spike after the recall rather than before it.

Where 2016 sits in the model line

High risk for a 2016 — 200th riskiest of the 255 2016 vehicles we can rate. Because the ranking is against the same model year only, age cancels out of it.

Across the 11 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 2023 comes out best at 63 and 2014 worst at 75, with 2016 itself at 68.

If the model year is negotiable, 2023 scores lower than 2016 by a margin worth acting on. Same body, same engines, different luck — usually a supplier change or a mid-cycle fix, which the complaint data can show but never explain.

Within the 2014–2020 generation specifically, 2020 is the strongest year at 67 and 2014 the weakest at 75.

The limits of complaint data

49 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.

Of those 49 reports, 18 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 37% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".

Named failure modes come from matching phrases in the complaint text, so a badly worded complaint can land in the wrong bucket. The effect washes out across hundreds of reports and does not wash out across five.

And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.