Evening folks.....newbie here. Fiat announced publicly back in November that the Dakota would be discontinued. That part is for sure, what is rumour is what will be taking it's place, Fiat made no announcement about that.

 

They would have to be stupid to believe that putting a 5.7 in the Dakota would significantly effect Ram sales. They put the 360 in the Dakota RTs a few years back and I didn't exactly see those things dominating in the sales department.

They have a loyal customer base in Dakota owners and rather than give us what we want in our trucks they instead keep building the same thing year after year. If they would freshen it and make it better like they did with the 09 Rams then I think they would be able to get some people to leave Toyota, Ford, and Chevy.

If they are going to keep making the same truck though year after year with slightly increased horsepower and torque on the same old 4.7l V8 with interiors that suck then people will keep buying Nissan Frontiers and Toyota Tacomas because their V6s have almost as much power and better gas mileage.

Don't get me wrong I love Dodge and I stick with Dodge because I am a Mopar guy through and through but they need to work on quality.

 

It's time for the Dakota to get a diesel because diesel is the future and better. But like you said, Dodge needs to bring back American quality for the Dakota but I guess doesn't matter since the Dakota will end.

I do know that in my area Dodge Ram trucks are selling like crazy and I'm seeing less Chevy.

 

Fiat is making the call to kill the Dakota in 2011.

 

They did make the Jeep Liberty CRD in 2005 I believe, had a diesel engine!
"Quote"
"The Liberty CRD (Common Rail Diesel) turbo engine makes 160 hp at 3,800 rpm and 295 lb.-ft. torque at 1,800 rpm. It has a towing limit of 2,200 kg."
http://www.wheels.ca/article/28421

Would have been nice to see that worked into the dakota.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixEu6...eature=related

 

Honestly if people wanted a truck to use as a truck (towing, hauling, moving heavy stuff) in the midsize category they wouldn't have bought any of those. None of them touch the Dakota in those categories, especially the Colorado/Canyon failures.

 

the ranger will prolly stay remember when they said it was gonna be killed back in 05? i think that is why they left it the same body, thing has looked the same for the last like 7-8years

 

Lmao how the hell does that make sense LOL they r replacing a truck with a hatch?!?!?!? Wtf r they thinking.