On Wednesday evening I said a sad farewell to my truck. As some may know, I had a bad reverse clutch in my truck and the dealer as well as Chrysler Canada have both said that i had to be abuse. Even when all forward clutches were so good the transmission guy said that they could have been installed yesterday and he wouldn't have known the difference.

After the crummy customer service (always having to call for updates, never getting an update from the dealer) and being called a liar constantly, I traded in my dakota.

Not to a tacoma or frontier as i was hoping to get into, my credit at the moment is not allowing me to get into one of those. I'm now the owner of a 2012 Kia Sorento LX AWD. This thing is actually pretty good. Once i upgrade the tires, i think i'll be pretty happy with it. The interior room is about the same if not slightly more then the Dak and i have interior locked storage. I never really used the bed that much in the Dak and i had tons of stuff in the back seat all the time as i didn't want stuff to get stolen. I'll get a small 6x8 open trailer to pull anything bigger then what fits in the back.

I will definitely miss my truck, but the heated seats, Bluetooth and satellite radio make it easier. Its not the truck, it was all customer service that made my decision. I'll still come around, and help any that has questions that i can answer, so you'll still see me every now and then. Not as often, but i'll swing around for sure. I'm sure i have some info that will help people out. I may be without my dakota, but i'm still a fan of the dakota and who knows, i might buy another one (a 4.7 this time around) and make a stout offroad truck out of it.

 

Congrats, and good luck with it. I'd be a little pissed too if I were in your place. Hope you find a Kia forum as friendly as these guys.

Now let's see it!

 

I'd think the Kia should save fuel vs. the Dakota. Don't really care for their choice of a brand name, since thats always meant killed in action since I've been around.

 

TO bad about the Dakota but the Kia Sorento seems to be a good little suv wife has a 2005 v6 5speed manual pretty good power and it's been really reliable has 120xxx miles on it and still runs great

 

Hey everyone, thank you for the kind words. i'm still hunting for a good Kia forum to attach myself. Here's a pic of my new ride.



I really like the colour, Midnight blue, it's a dark blue with a grey tint to it. Going to be installing a decent but not too extreme AT tire. something that is good on pavement but still good in the dirt and snow like the General Grabber AT2 i had on my dak. Like size 245/65R17 Firestone Destination A/T or the Kumho Road Venture AT51.

 

Was there any symptoms to the bad reverse clutch cause whenever I put my truck in reverse I get a grinding sound just trying to get this figured out before its to late

 

It would be better if you started your own thread.

 

Yes, Start your own thread, but for me, the reverse band clutch got burned and would no longer engage, so for me reverse was just like neutral. All forward gears worked correctly.