I have test driven the 3.7L V6, same one they have in the Dakota, in a Jeep Liberty that my brother was buying. The Jeep Liberty is lighter than the Dakota, keep in mind, and it still felt underpowered. Maybe I am just used to V8s...

My new 2010 Dakota with the V8 is out of this world fantastic compared to that 3.7L V6, or my old 2001 Ram with the big 5.9L V8 I had before yesterday.

However, as far as reliability, these transmissions, V6 or V8, are far better than the old Dakota/Ram transmissions (1st Gen and early 2nd Gen Dakotas, 2nd Gen Rams). You could treat those things perfectly and butter them up, and they'd still sometimes fail at 50k miles. And sometimes they'd last to over 150k. They were very unpredictable.

 

My wife's 06 grand Cherokee with 3.7 l. V6 is totally underpowered.

On the other hand, we have a new Caravan at work with the 3.6 l. V6, that engine is surprisingly peppy.

ps. The transmission in the Cherokee sucks, it's too slushy for my taste.

 

My 06 with less then 100k miles on it is getting a new transmission as I post this. Always had amsoil synthetic fluids changed on time, I've pulled a trailer a hand full of times, had a heavy load in the bed 3 - 4 times. V8 2 wheel drive quad cab. Drove out of the bank parking lot after a very hard shift into drive, drive barely engaged, the truck basically rolled out of the parking lot and I had to have it towed from there.

 

I have an 2005 dakota with the 42rle tranny. Mine went out with around 130k miles on it just recently. The whole reverse clutch in the torque converter went out. The fluid was also burnt. If the oil is hot enough to burn, its hot enough to eat at the seals. When it went out, i already had a tranny cooler on it too.

 

Is it a brand new van? If so its got the new Pentastar V6 motor. Its got more HP than our 4.7s and better mpgs. Supposed to be a pretty hot little motor.

 

I'm hoping to buy a new Jeep with the new Pentastar ..... glad I didn't buy a 2011 with the 3.8l as the Pentastar has been getting some awesome reviews.

 

mines in the shop getting a new transmission

 

oh dang, how many miles?

 

And equally as important, V6 (42RLE) or V8 (545RFE)?

 

My 06 got a rebuilt tranny at about 123K. Less than a year later, @ 145K (I drive a little bit) the transmission temp light is coming on again. Its a false reading, as the scanner shows its below temperature. When I had it rebuilt, I added an auxiliary cooler. No way should it be getting hot.

I have to get it into the stealership where they can do a full computer diagnostic of the computer to see if I need to replace it ($600). Oh joy.

Thought it, because of the location of the trucks computer, the connectors get corroded and give out false readings. And its happening again. Oh, and it took a couple months for the shop to figure this out. Now I worry that the computer itself is bad. The engineer that thought putting the truck's computer in the engine bay next to the AC Condenser was a good idea need to go back to school.

My truck has the heavy duty towing package, gearing and such, but when it tows almost anything over 1K, it whimpers. Sorry, this truck is fun to drive, by itself, but for doing truck type work, get a full size. Which is what I'm doing next. And after dealing with Mopar customer service, the truck I buy won't begin with 'D'...

Yes, I'm ranting.