Howdy all. I'm doing some research on a truck I am interested in, and I wanted to get some info from those that would know. So here I am.

I'm looking at a 1998 Ram SLT Club Cab Short Bed. Its White, 5.2L/318 V8, auto and 2WD. It has 205k miles, but has been dealer maintained since day one.

I'll be using it as a daily driver mainly, with an occasional haul now and then.

My maine concerns are what kinda of things tend to go wrong at this mileage, and what should I look out for?

Is there any known issues with the truck/engine of that vintage I should look out for or ask about?

And what do you guys think is a fair price? It is super clean, interior looks new to be honest. No dings or anything, paint is right for its age.

 

3 grand tops. And that's if it's in super good condition.

 

check out the trans. see if its been rebuilt, my buddy has a 97 1500 5.2 4x4 with 260k miles. the motor should be fine as long as it has proper maintinance, just check the tranny, i had to rebuild mine at 156k

 

Well with any high milage truck like that, it's all in how it has been maintained. Parts are readily availble and the trucks are easy to work on. The biggest thing with the Dodges is their auto trannies suck. At 200K the previous owner has either had exceptional luck with the tranny, or it has been replaced/repaired before.

If there is a previous registration or anything with the name and address of the previous owner on it in the truck, see if you can contact the old owneer to find out why they traded it in. I have used that trick several times and found out valuable information about the vehicle (not all bad either) like onceI found out the guy had twins and couldn't carry them in his reg cab truck, so there are good reasons to trade them in.

If the truck looks good and you have a good paper trail of service, I would say get it if you like the truck and the price. You have two things going for you, the gas guzzler market is very, very slow so I'm sure the dealer wants to get it off the lot, and also vehicles with that high of miles are not desirable for the dealer either so you can get some good bargains there too.

 

This is a private party sale, from the original owner.

 

Man jump on it. If its that nice and runs like it has 100k get it. Of coarse if the price is right. Whats he asking??? Don't worry it's not like were gonna cop it from under you. $$$$???

 

Well, actually he offered it to me as a trade for a vehicle I have for sale (Jeep Wrangler). Mine's worth about $5500, so I was researching to see what his truck was truly worth. I have emailed him back asking about the tranny though, so I'll let you all know what that status of it is.

Thank you all for the assistance, I truly appreciate it.