Ultimate Rides — Local services in Braidwood

I’m not gonna bash this company but I am going to tell my story. I was 16 looking for my first truck I found there website online and went to ultimate rides to look around at some vehicles John and Brandon were super nice and helpful they helped me find the perfect truck in my price range it was a 2008 white Silverado with higher mileage we bought the warranty through them the truck was 17.9k on the lot after warranty and tax and plates it was around 21k out the door. I put 7k cash down and had a loan for 15.8k I was so happy driving the truck off the lot everything was good until I got home. I backed up in the driveway to take some pictures and my mom noticed fluid leaking the radiator was blown. then 3 days later the rear differential blew up they took care of it for free I was happy but little did I know this was just the start of a nightmare. over the next two months my truck was in there shop every other week for multiple things lifter ticks, brakes etc. finally I was driving home on the highway and the whole cab of the truck filled with smoke. It got towed down to there shop and me and my dad went down there and tried to work something out because this truck clearly wasn’t reliable and in the 3 months I owned it. It was in there shop over 30 days. So before we let them try to fix it again we took it to Darcy to get an inspection with in a few minutes of the truck being on there lift. They found the frame was completely rotted and the truck is unsafe to drive and they should’ve never sold me that truck. So me and my dad went down to ultimate rides to try and work something out because clearly this vehicle isn’t going to work. They offered to swap for a Tahoe which I didn’t want because I need a pick up truck for work.They said they wanted to make it right but didn’t do anything to help me except give us a very low amount for the truck. I owed 14.6k on the loan they wouldn’t even clear the loan. They gave us 14k so me a 16 year old lost $8,800 in 3 months on my first truck this is something I will remember for the rest of my life. I wasn’t even going to write a review until I noticed they put my truck back up for sale on there lot knowing it’s unsafe to drive the frame could snap at any minute. This place is a joke I hope no one else has to go through the situation I did. On top of that they told me I couldn’t find a vehicle with under 150k miles for less than 25k well I just bought a truck from Darcy with 51k on the dash for the same price. Seems like all there doing is buying cheap trucks at auction slapping a lift and tires on and listing it...

We initially bought a truck from ultimate rides for my son after a recruiting trip to the University of Illinois. He was super excited to get a lifted truck with wheels, but I was nervous about the 128,000 miles. I specifically asked this team about the cam phaser issue and were told that the truck had no problems. We ultimately bought the truck and drove it home. On the way home apparently a check engine light came on and then went off and my son thought not to mention it. However, over the ensuing weeks, the check engine light came on multiple times finally staying on after about three weeks of ownership of the truck. The truck was sputtering and starting and near stalling out at times while driving it. We then took it to the local dealership in Nashville that I’ve used for years and were told that this truck had numerous issues (the service chief whom I have known for years even went so far as to say “I’m not trying to throw anyone under the bus but…”) and that the codes were cleared multiple times during the month of March just before we bought it. We were told it was going to be $6500 to fix it. I contacted ultimate rides and even sent them a PDF print out of all of the check engine light codes that were cleared in the month of March; many of them related to timing and the phaser issue. They offered to fix it if we return the truck 7 1/2 hours back to their dealership for $3500. We elected to have it fixed in Nashville given the cost of time and transport for the vehicle. It was during the time the truck was being worked on that our son told us that the sunroof had stopped working and we asked the local Nashville dealership to check on that. We were told that the track would need to be replaced and that was another $5200. We are now looking at nearly $12,000 in repairs on a truck that was just bought, four weeks prior. When I contacted ultimate rides a second time regarding this new issue I was understandably frustrated. We were told that they were willing to fix the sunroof for $600. When I then emailed back to find out how long this would take and if this was the total cost of repairs…. I was ghosted. We have not heard back from them after two additional emails.

I can only speak from our experience, but we would never EVER again recommend anyone purchase a vehicle from these people. This has been an invaluable lesson for my son to never buy a used vehicle from people...

I’ve been looking for a new truck for over a year now! I wanted a 2019 and newer Ram 1500. Went to multiple big dealers and the employees were all the same. All of them just kept telling me what they couldn’t do to help and just wanted to give me the run around. The numbers never matched up with what they said so I knew they were just trying to make more commission and didn’t care about me as customers. My neighbor had bought his truck from Ultimate rides and said the people that work there are great! I called and spoke with Alex and let him know I was interested in 2-Ram 1500’s. He said that he would get them cleaned up for me and to come on in. I had to cancel on him 2 different times due to work and personal reasons. When I called Alex he was very understanding and didn’t give me the normal salesman speech. I was expecting him to say If you can’t make it today there’s another person interested in the truck and it will most likely to gone. There was none of that he said come in tomorrow if you can and speak to Brandon and he will take care of you. He even said we aren’t commission based he just wanted to help me get the truck I wanted. So I went in with the intentions of just checking out the trucks and getting some numbers. I met with Brandon and he was very personable and talked to me like we have known each other for years. The owner Nick came in as was the same. Brandon let me check the truck out by myself and take it for a test drive. He wasn’t hovering over me telling me this and that about the truck trying to be overbearing. He made my experience comfortable and answered every question I did have with honesty. He went above and beyond when it came to helping me get the payment I wanted and the price I was comfortable with for my trade. I did buy the truck that day and I couldn’t be happier with it!! My experience was the best I’ve ever had and I’ve been recommending them to everyone who has asked me about my truck. I will definitely be a repeat customer in the future. There trucks speak for themselves when you see them! Ultimate...