Hi everyone. I am looking to get a truck and have found a 2001 1500, 5.2, 5spd manual. It has 109,000 miles and they are asking $7,900. It has next to no rust, is super clean, and has pretty low miles. It was owned by an older man who traded it in to the dealership, who I am now thinking of taking it from.
so here's my question; what do I need to look at in this truck to make sure it's good? Is this a good deal? What are some major problems? I come from a line of bowtie lovers, so the family is telling me it's crap. What do y'all think?


ps. I'm a pretty good mechanic, so minor issues aren't a major turn off for me.

thanks!!

 

Welcome to DF!

The only other things aside from what you would usually look at on any used vehicle, would be the plenum, (see sticky thread at top of this forum) and maybe test for timing chain stretch. If it runs/drives good, you may be ok, but, 7900 seems awfully steep to me..... Where are you at? (zip code.)

 

Thanks for the info!! I'm in the 37664 area, east Tennessee. Everyone here thinks if it has a bed and for wheels, it worth it's weight in gold.

 

Just think what they would want if it was a diesel. Ouchie......

Might wanna go to NADA.org, and see what they think its worth...... I see trucks of that nature around here for under 4 grand on a regular basis. Granted, I live right smack in the rust belt.......

 

That's crazy $$$! When i was looking for my Indy ram i looked it up in nada/kelly blue book and the prices then where not that high. IF it where a diesel or a 4X4 with a 5.9 gasser then maybe. I would keep looking or if you really like the truck offer him a realistic price for it.

 

That price should be very negotiable if the truck is 2WD, however, it is nice to find a truck with no rust. Sounds like the old guy may have kept the truck parked indoors most of its life. Also, if its on a dealership's lot, you already are dealing with built-in dealer related mark-ups instead of dealing with just the private owner on a cash and carry basis.

Check the rear steel brake line around the fuel tank - they are famous for springing a leak due to rust in that area of the truck.

Take the truck for a high speed ride on the highway and make sure that the front end is good and tight and that you don't experience any steering issues.

Check to see what maintenance records are available and what maintenance has been done on the truck to-date.

 

I love my truck, but mostly because I have set up the way I want it and at this point modern trucks are so expensive it just doesn't make sense for me to sell this thing for nothing and spend a ton on a truck that I don't drive. However, I'd not buy another 2nd gen Ram nor would I ever recommend one. These trucks are have major problems with almost everything on them. I'm sure you'll get a ton of people telling you how great they are because we are on a Dodge site, but do research and see for yourself. Back when I bought this thing people told me don't expect more than 100k miles out of it. Being used to Japanese reliability I thought they were wrong. Turns out at 95-100k miles I had several major components fail.

The plenum gaskets are almost always bad unless it's already been fixed. Look down the throttle body to see if oil is pooling in the intake. The automatic transmissions are junk in stock form, but being a 5 speed you have an advantage. They still aren't great, but they are much better than the automatic. The dash is probably cracked all over unless it's been replaced in which case it will be cracked all over soon. The limited slips in the rear end often break leaving clips floating around in the rear end. (I've seen this on numerous trucks). I'm not sure about the 318, but on the 360 the heads are almost always cracked. (I suspect the 318 is the same). The front end is a poor design so expect to go through front end parts. The steering bushings in the column wear out which Dodge doesn't sell. Luckily there is a Rock Solid Ram steering fix that helps with this issue. There really just isn't much on these trucks that is good other than the Dana 44 axle up front being decent. They also have poorly designed drains in the doors, so lower door rust is extremely common as well.

In addition to all of these problems they are severely under powered compared to the competition even from that era. Not only are they under powered, but they get horrible gas mileage. Much worse than the LS motor's in the Chevrolet trucks of this era, while producing a lot less power. Overall, I just don't see the reason to buy one of these trucks unless you get it dirt cheap. Which you aren't at that price. I wish I'd bought something else when I got mine, but since I have it it's not worth spending the money to buy something else.

 

I would point out that any vehicle that is pushing 20 years old, is going to have issues, regardless of who made it.

I would also like to point out that not everyone has a bad experience with these trucks. I bought mine used, I EXPECTED some issues. But, at 202K and change miles, it is still the original engine, and trans. It still drives fairly nice, considering what it is.....

 

I do agree with this. I guess my opinion of these trucks is since I've had my 01 since the early 2000's and the issues started fairly early with it. Back then almost everyone had the exact same issues. It wasn't like a random part failure here and there, it was issues that almost everyone with these trucks experienced because they were a bad design. 15 years later I come on the forums and see people having the exact same issues that most of us had with these trucks had back then. The same parts just fail over and over on them.

 

That's pretty spendy... 2x4 or 4x4? I wouldn't pay more than 5k TOPS if its a 4x4.