Gentelmen

I've been reading your forum for a few months now, as I am looking into getting an 06 Dakota. One of the main detractors I read about is gas milage. In Dodge's web-site under specifications they list lock-up torque converter only under the Laramie package. If this is true, then a lot of the bad gas mileage can be contribuited to the lack of a lock-up torque converter. Does any one know? One might determine this by watching there tac. to see if the RPM's drop. Also does anyone Know if automatic headlights can be add, it is only listed under Laramie. Thank you.

 

I have a Laramie and it gets the same bad mileage as everyone else - roughly 14 city and 18 highway

 

Manual transmissions are standard on ST and SLT so it would be inaccurate to list lock-up converters as standard; automatic transmissions are standard equipment for Laramie. ST and SLT use the same engines and transmissions as Laramie and have the same mileage on the window stickers. It would be very strange if non-lockup converters were used on ANY new vehicle. I see no cause for concern.

As for gas mileage -- I'm getting 20 mpg at times, and average around 19 highway and 15-ish city. I used to drive a '78 Ford F-150 that got 10 mpg with only a 16 gallon tank to drink from, and this thing does better than my dad's V6, 5-speed '93 Dakota (which gets about 18, he says), so I'm not seeing what's so bad about this.

 

The Dakota is rated only 1 mpg worse the the comapitors V6's so I wouldn't say gas milage suck that bad. Plus those V6's use 91 octane. If gas milage is a concern you shouldn't buy a truck they all suck gas.