Victor Gonzalez and Stuart Glick want their money back — or at least credit for the two gears they say they never got to use. The pair has filed a class action lawsuit against Stellantis alleging that 2022 and 2023 Ram ProMaster vans were falsely advertised as having a 9-speed automatic transmission. The hardware technically has nine ratios, but the lawsuit claims the vans are too slow and too heavy to ever engage eighth or ninth gear.
That distinction — between what a spec sheet promises and what a vehicle actually delivers — sits at the heart of this case.
Stellantis upgraded the ProMaster from a 6-speed to a 9-speed automatic and touted the higher gear ratios as a way to reduce engine RPM at highway speeds. Lower RPMs mean better fuel economy, less noise, and reduced engine wear. Those are selling points that matter to fleet operators and van life converts who put serious miles on these vehicles.
But according to the lawsuit, the top two gears are phantoms. They exist mechanically but never engage in real-world driving.
Every ProMaster rolls off the line with the same 3.6-liter Pentastar V6, making 280 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque. Stellantis drops that engine into everything from the Dodge Charger to the Jeep Wrangler. In a sedan, it’s adequate. In a tall, blunt-nosed commercial van that weighs north of 5,000 pounds empty, it’s working overtime.
The lawsuit argues the powertrain simply can’t generate enough surplus thrust to let the transmission shift into its tallest ratios, leaving the ProMaster functionally identical to the 6-speed it replaced.
This isn’t even the first time a Stellantis predecessor pulled transmission math tricks. DaimlerChrysler once sold a 6-speed automatic that only used four or five of its gears. The company has a peculiar relationship with gear counts.
The Ford Transit offers a useful comparison. The 2021 high-roof, extended-length Transit runs a 3.5-liter V6 making 275 horsepower and 262 pound-feet of torque — almost identical numbers to the Pentastar. It pairs with a 10-speed automatic.
By all logic, a van that size shouldn’t reach its highest gears either. Yet real-world driving shows it regularly climbs into tenth on flat highway stretches without a trailer. Ford’s transmission programming and gear spacing clearly accommodate the vehicle’s weight and aerodynamic profile.
The ProMaster, apparently, does not. That gap between the two vans points toward software calibration and gear ratio selection as likely culprits, not some fundamental law of physics preventing big vans from using tall gears. If Ford can make ten gears work in a comparable vehicle, Stellantis has some explaining to do about why nine was apparently too many.
The lawsuit also alleges Stellantis knew or should have known about the issue and marketed the vans with the 9-speed claim anyway. That’s the kind of allegation that transforms a technical complaint into a consumer fraud case.
Stellantis has not publicly responded to the filing. The case still has to survive early motions and discovery before anyone gets near a courtroom. Class certification is another hurdle.
But the core question is elegant in its simplicity: if you advertise nine gears and only deliver seven usable ones, did you sell what you promised?
Fleet buyers and independent van converters chose the ProMaster partly on the strength of that transmission upgrade. They expected lower cruising RPMs, better highway efficiency, and a meaningful improvement over the old 6-speed. If the lawsuit’s claims hold up, they got a new transmission that performs exactly like the one it replaced — with two extra gears that do nothing but pad a brochure.
Share this Story