My brand new truck’s check engine light came on last week. I thought it was bad gas, but that turned out incorrect. I made an appointment to take it in yesterday afternoon, and drove it around until then.

I got to Royal Gate Dodge yesterday evening around 5-ish, and spent a couple hours in their lobby waiting for them to finish. I didn’t mind it much, since they’ve got free donuts, a huge flat panel TV, and free Wifi. There’s nothing really I could do at home that I couldn’t do from their waiting room. After those couple hours, the service rep comes up to me and says they need to keep it overnight. The evening mechanic doesn’t know what’s wrong, but the day mechanic had seen the error codes before.

We walked over to the Cashier and they hooked me up with a free rental car for the evening/next day. A Chevy Aveo. Now, I thought it was cool they gave me a rental car even though I’m under 25, but did they have to give me the smallest, cheapest car made? It wasn’t that bad of a car, but it was not designed for someone who is 6' 2".

After work today I returned the rental car and picked up my truck. There was nothing physically wrong with it. There is a software error in the 2004 Dakota’s computer that causes it to spew random error codes, and Chrysler just contacted my dealer about it this morning. Chrysler told them they should have an update in a month or two, and until then I shouldn’t worry about the check engine light coming back on.

Overall, I’d have to say I’m pretty impressed with Royal Gate. The salesman didn’t pressure me at all, and I was able to talk him down a fair amount on the price, I’ve got free oil changes and tire rotations for life, The service dept. lobby has everything I need, and they were extremely helpful and courteous about performing the warranty covered work and free rental car. I’d recommend them to anyone looking for a new truck.