Hey Folks, I've long been a mustang guy but for practicality reasons I've got to move to a truck. At the moment I've got my eye on a few Dakotas for sale around me and am just curious about what are some common problems to look out for when shopping for one of these and how bad is it to fix these. Also how does the v6 hold up to the v8? I know probably it wont be the same performance wise but what about with reliability and fuel economy between the two. Also if I get one of these, I should have a few grand extra laying around, so what are some good mods I can do for 2-3k?

 

What years are you looking at? The 3.9 and 5.2 are good reliable engines(the 3.7 and 4.7 are just as good too) Pretty much the v6's get the almost same mpg as the v8's (maybe 1 or 2 mpg more) The 3.9 and 5.2 have a bigger market for aftermarket parts where the 3.7 and 4.7 isnt so big being a newer engine. You can still get plenty of parts for either one for the average guy. Also the 5.2 vs the 4.7 about the same power wise but the 4.7 gets a lil better mpg. Its all up to you really the 5.2 has been around forever where the 4.7 came about in 2000. The biggest thing on these is fading paint and ball joints. Seems like the brighter colors seem to fade. I cant speak much tho because the PO repainted my truck. If the truck has good greaseable ball joints they last a lot longer than the factory ones. Just check the whole truck out making sure everything down to the last detail works. Also depending on the year check for rust on the body(wheel wells,front fenders,rocker panels are common on older daks) I found 2 rust holes in my bed when I took out my bedliner. Personally I have a 98 5.2 4x4 auto I love everything about my truck other than the auto. Which from reading you should know that almost all dodge autos suck. Aftermarket wise for either truck you can get some good power out of both with a couple hundred bucks. Even like 1500 you can do cams,throttle body,tuner,intake and exhaust. Which if you do that all at once you will notice a hell of gain!