Which year should I buy?
Hall Of Fame
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 12,204
Likes: 10
From: Gainesville, Ga.
00 and 01 brought in dual piston front calipers and slightly larger rear cylinders, and the cracked dash.
interiors evolved slightly in cup holders.
something changed a little in the pcm in 98, since hypertech makes a tuner for 98+, but not 97 and back.
honestly, very little changed, and one's not significantly better than another unless its the 01 offroad. it you like it, grab it.
interiors evolved slightly in cup holders.
something changed a little in the pcm in 98, since hypertech makes a tuner for 98+, but not 97 and back.
honestly, very little changed, and one's not significantly better than another unless its the 01 offroad. it you like it, grab it.
Captain
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 723
Likes: 0
From: Galveston, Texas
98 was the start of the dash cracking as far as I know, my dash and cup holders were all shot. I think the 98+ had more to do with the shift points in the tranny. IIRC the Hypertech changes shift points.
Veteran
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 302
Likes: 0
From: Rockland County, NY
My bad on saying the 318's been around since the '80's...I dont need to read up on history more lol I hit an "8" instead of a "6", my neighbor has a '69 Charger with a 318 in it so I deff knew that lol...my point was its a good engine, I say Go for it!
Banned
Joined: Apr 2009
Posts: 2,816
Likes: 4
From: Los Angeles, CA
Your gonna have a lot of the same problems no matter what 2nd gen year truck you buy. Like another person said up top, the only major change was the transition from 1997- 1998 all that was done was an interior upgrade. (Oh, and the mirrors went to black plastic instead of plastic with chrome foil over them.)
Depending on the mileage, and condidition, you might have your self a good buy.
Oh, who ever said that the magnums have been used since the 80's needs to read history a little more. The Magnum motors have been around since the late 60's. Just FYI.
Depending on the mileage, and condidition, you might have your self a good buy.
Oh, who ever said that the magnums have been used since the 80's needs to read history a little more. The Magnum motors have been around since the late 60's. Just FYI.
Veteran
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 386
Likes: 1
From: Waxahachie, TX (DFW)
Dash cracking came along before 00 and 98. Mine's a 97 and the dash resembles a spider web...
But as previous posters stated: 94-01 Rams are pretty similar. Just some design changes to the interior, addition of rear doors in 98, couple of little things here and there. Nothing significant until 2002.
But as previous posters stated: 94-01 Rams are pretty similar. Just some design changes to the interior, addition of rear doors in 98, couple of little things here and there. Nothing significant until 2002.
Meh, yea, I'll give ya that, but unless this guy is going to be a shade tree mechanic, then it's not really that big of an issue, unless your looking at tuners.