Dodge also cheated with Dirty Diesel Dodge Ram trucks

Raise your hand if you ever sat behind a dirty diesel truck and couldn't stand the fumes.

Allegations of cheating pollution standards have reached U.S. automakers as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was sued by consumers who said engines in some Ram pickup trucks were rigged to hide that emissions were as much as 14 times higher than permitted by law.

FCA is the first U.S. carmaker to be sued by consumers. Similar claims were made against German carmakers. Volkswagen AG admitted that it installed devices designed to fool emission testing in 11 million cars worldwide in a scandal that may cost it 18.2 billion euros ($19.5 billion). Claims of rigging vehicles have also been made against Mercedes, which has denied the allegations.

Fiat Chrysler and its diesel technology partner Cummins Inc. hid from consumers that pollutants that were supposed to have been broken down inside the diesel engines instead had a tendency to escape, almost doubling the emissions and reducing the vehicle’s fuel efficiency, according to the lawsuit. The companies are accused of fraud, false advertising and racketeering in the complaint, filed today in U.S. District Court in Detroit on behalf of the owners of almost 500,000 Ram 2500/3500 model trucks.

Ram became its own brand under the FCA umbrella in 2009. Before that, Ram trucks were sold under the Dodge brand.

The lawsuit against FCA — created in 2014 through the merger of Chrysler and Fiat — further calls into question the credibility of clean-diesel technology. Excessive emissions from the vehicles exposed the general public to noxious levels of smog, according to the consumer complaint.

The claims involving Ram pickups from 2007 and 2012 predate the first known sales of emissions-cheating vehicles by Volkswagen by two years.

FCA said it is reviewing the complaint.

"Based on the information available to it, FCA US does not believe that the claims brought against it are meritorious," FCA said in a statement to Reuters. "FCA US will contest the lawsuit vigorously."

Cummins declined to immediately comment. autonews.com