Folks,

My son is wanting me to help him buy a 2001 extended cab red 1500 4x4.
Truck is huge with monster tires and appears to have a lift kit. Engine is the 5.2 V8. Truck has 80,000 miles. Amazing that the interior and back seat seem almost new with no wear anywhere. The body is perfect. The miles appear to be mostly highway miles as the truck is super clean. Has dual exhaust with flowmasters and roars like a beast, bedliner (no wear or scratches).
Question, would some of you consider this truck to be slightly underpowered with the 5.2 instead of the 5.9?? Dealer is asking 16K. I am thinking this is a tad high, but the truck is a real showstopper. Even has crome fender liners.
Any opions about the engine & tranny service record would be appreciated

 

It sounds pretty good to me, It probably has 35" tires, you can always upgrade on the gear ratio on the diffs. I bought my 99 4x4 Ram new from the dealer. I spent alot of time and money rigging it up. Although it was alot of money and time, it was fun doing it myself. The next time I buy another 4X4, I will buy lifted with all the good stuff on. This is my opinion and I hope it helps.

 

16K seems way to high for a 80k mile Ram in todays market. What size tires does it have? There is such a thing as too big, escpecially on a 1500, and escpecially if gears were not part of the tire package install the previous owner did. Running huge tires with stock gears just causes everything else (engine, trans, etc...) to have to work harder, shortening the life of the truck and killing performance and gas mileage. Though it's lifted, it sounds like it might not have been an off-road truck, but rather a street queen because of the condition you describe it being in. That is probably a good thing when buying used. As for the 5.2, it can handle quite a bit, and can easily make as much power as any 5.9, if modified correctly. The was only like 20-30 hp differenct between a 5.9 and 5.2 from the factory.

 

Do you have any pictures of it? I agree with ^^^^^^^ that 16k is very high for a truck with 80k miles. You should be able to get one for way less than that with a moderate lift and the other things you listed.

 

sounds high but does sound like a good truck. if you can find out what kind of tire( size more imporantly) what kind of lift it is, is there a name like skyjacker or fabtech on it. is it red, blue, black, yellow. also see if you can find out if it had gears put it in. the 5.2 really isnt that underpowered and can be made really powerful. it also doesnt have some of the problem like the 5.9 has

 

sounds high to me as well... plus with a 318 instead of the 360, overall performance is going to be low. Hope he has a good job to pay for gas... those who get high mpg #'s are running close to stock sized tires and are in the mid-teens for combined city/hiway. I modded mine pretty well, had 295's on it (close to a 34" tire) and the best I could do consistantly was mid 14's on the hiway.

If this is his 1st truck... i'd recommend passing on it. get something that is in the 5~8k range and let him work on it. the more he works on it, the more he learns and the more he'll be able to avoid the repair shops.

 

Sounds ridiculously high to me....the mileage isnt bad....considering most people drive 12-16k a year....so 80k on a 5 yr old truck isnt super bad....but it doesnt warrant $16k. The options I'm sure are what is helping this dealer jack up the price on.

With the way gas prices are right now, there's no way I'd even consider that truck.....and since I dont know how old your son is, or what kind of job he has....I'd be very hesitant to allow my son to undergo that kind of financial burden.

If he's dead set on a truck, look into a 2nd Gen Dakota. Most of the ability of a Dodge Ram 1500, and better gas mileage.

 

the better gas milage only applies to the v6's... even then they could be better. my wifes cc dak with her 3.9 only gets low 17's. my other dak std cab 3.9 gets 18's.

How old is your son? How much is putting into his purchase? Ive told my kids that i'll match them up to $1500 bux on their 1st car/truck making them responsible for saving & earning their way behind the wheel. I also make them pay for 1/2 the insurance bill with the understanding that if the bill goes up because of their negligence, they're paying the difference. puts the responsiblilty on them to behave behind the wheel. so far it's worked on 2 of my kids.

 

Sounds like whoever is selling this truck is trying to get all the money out of it that he put into it. That's not gonna happen, at least if the potential buyer's logical. I just had to deal with this fact with my recent sale of a Jeep TJ. I had around 6 grand in mods like a long arm lift, lockers, dana 44's F/R, etc. and everybody that looked at it thought it was cool, but agreed that I was gonna have to settle for a loss when I sold it. That's the unfortunate nature of the truck modification addiction. It's fun, but expensive. I'd just check out the Blue Book on it ( a LOT less than 16k), check out the mods, and do some wheelin and dealin. He'll probably come off it some. Good Luck!

And to Steve00ram360, that plan is a great idea. I'm 22 years old, and my dad's approach was nearly identical to yours. I took a lot better care of it because I had to pay for it. I've also seen way to many of my friends flip, total, or otherwise destroy AWESOME trucks, and then be like, "who cares, my parents bought it". More parents should adopt your plan.

 

PLEASE LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE...never buy a built truck, unless you personally know what was done to it. I got burned on a built truck, i'll never do it again. The gears in the front and rear axles didn't match, suspension pieced together, too much other to list -- all things you wouldn't know without digging into the internals of the vehicle. IMO, buy one you like and either do the work yourself or pay someone professionally to do it (keep receipts).