Hey all, new to forum and never owned a Dodge. I’m shopping for a pickup and am very interested in a Dakota I found. It’s a 2006 Club Cab SLT 3.7 A/T, 58K, southern truck for $9500. I’ve driven it and it runs and drives well.

I’ve done a little digging online and it seems brake calipers, ball joints, sway bar links and rust seem to be common issues. There’s no rust I can find on this truck but what’s the life expectancy of these components and what other issues should I be aware of?

I’m in my service van 5 days a week and would be driving this truck as a weekend vehicle.

Thanks in advance for any information.

 

price is a bit high, but other then that, front ends are very crappy and bouncy. that's mostly what everyone changes out first, I own a 2005 with 214000 miles on it, 4.7 motor and has rust around the bed wheel rails, but all dodge get that. if purchase invest in a set of fender flares, these help out a lot. not to familiar with the 6 cyl but these dodges are very reliable, prevented maintance is the key,

 

Thats low mileage for a 2006. Which can sometimes be a negative if it was drove around town all it's life. Hopefully it was owned by an older man that kept it garaged and well maintained.

 

Hey guys, thanks for the advice. Unfortunately I waited too long and the truck sold already. Still, I’m going to keep searching for a nice Dakota.

Another question about these trucks: I’ve seen a couple Dakotas, one Manual and one 4-speed, that have had transmission rebuilds at ~100K miles per their Carfax service histories. Is this common or coincidence?

 

If you're looking at 3rd gen Dakota's my advice would be to stick to the 5 and 6 speed transmission. I don't think a rebuild at under 100k would be considered normal.