hello all. first post. i was thinking about a 97+ dakota and would like to know how well these things hold together once they have a lot of miles. thinking about a 4wd cc v8 auto. i kinda want a v8 but i hear the 5.9 is a real pig(mileage), is it? how about the 5.2? and how does the newer 4.7 compare? most of what i am finding in my price range have 90k miles up to 150k miles. how many miles are too many?

i see trucks in the $7k range that would work for me but just wanted to check on how well they handle the miles before i started really shopping. any advice or things i should consider and keep my eyes out for would be great.

Jim

 

any of the Dakotas are great, depends really on what you are going to be doing with it on the motor choice, biggest thing is maintenance, get the records, try to find a private seller, in general you will come out in the end better off if you can find a one or 2 owner vehicle from the owner...

if you really crunch your numbers you would be surprised how affordable a new vehicle is, or a 1-2 year old, unless ur paying for it straight up think... in 3-5 years do you really want to be paying on something that now had oh 175,000+ miles? Plus figure in the cost of upkeep...

just my .02

 

i will be paying cash. $7k is alot less than $18k or whatever a v8 cc 4wd is going for these days. i am not afraid of minor problems and can fix about anything but i dont want to get into a truck that is mostly worn out if that is how these things work. i know some cars are just done by 120k and other are good for 150-200k. this is going to be my beater to and from work and thats about it. i have a couple of chevys for my nice vehicles

 

oh heck yea man ur set then! ha ha had no clue if you were a student in HS or what sorry bout that,
yea any would be fin if its paid for if its ur beater go with the 5.2 or the 4.7, the 6 is ok but ehh ull wish ya had the power of the v-8 both excellent motors the 5.9 is a bit stronger for pulling... best mileage goes 3.9 4.7 5.2 5.9... all of them will go 200,000+ easy miles if maintained properly!

 

hey... dont knock the high school kids, i only got 2 months to go, haha its all good... uh and the 3.9 in my opinion gets worse milage then im assuming the 4.7 v8, few guys who i work with said the same thing... yea pretty much as long as the truck was well maintained, truck didnt have the living snot beaten out of it, and wasnt put through alot of work, then your good to go. my buddy picked up his late grandfather's base model club cab dakota, mint condition, has a 100,000 miles, his only complaint is the valve tapping on start up, just like mine and everyone else's, plus he has pics of a dakota with 195,000 miles that he did tire work on, truck looked great.. so basically entering the dakota world is a blessing

 

actually the v8 and v6 in a dakota get about the same mpg, due to the weight of the truck... a big engine in a small truck uses less gas to get up that hill, where as a v6 in a small truck takes more gas to get up that big hill and more power, a v8 has the torque and power without loosing the mpg.

If you get a stock v8 vs a stock v6 you get better mpg with v8.

Also, i cant beleive you said you have nice chevys.... on a dodge forum.. i bet you that v8 dakota your about to get with a bit of work will killthat 03in performance ... lol, it cool though im just messing with you, every has there prefrence.

 

o ya look at this... this is a dak in action. beat to hell and still runs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIaBbf8ERsU&NR
_________________

 

i was just having some fun, i tried to put a smiley in there so you knew i wasn't being too serious. it would take more than a few mods for a dakota to keep up with my 03silverado. it runs prety good.

[img]http://www.1320video.com/img/album194/parish3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.1320video.com/img/album192/IMG_9769.jpg[/img]

i think i will be looking for a 4.7 auto just for the little better mileage. thanks for the help.

 

i retract my last statement that said "a few mods"... i feel like a douche now. lol, but ya i was just joking around anyways, whats that 03 run? and whats it dyno?

 

last trip to the dyno was 1055rwhp and something like 1050rwtq. best et so far is 10.08@137 and that is in 4wd. if i get a dakota maybe i will turbo it someday. how stout are these 4.7 motors? how about the tranny, can it be made strong? i dont know much about the dodges other than i like the styleling of them.