I am considering getting rid of my fullsize and buying a used 3 gen dakota , my question to you is, would you buy this truck again or not, what are any common problems, and what is the real world m.p.g for a 4.7 4x4 mega cab? thanks for any info that will help me decide.

 

i love mine. i previousely had an 02 ram short wide v6. i cant really give you a real world mpg bc almost every weekend i drive from school to my hometown to see the gf and many other friends goin to a university in my hometown. its about 100 miles away and i drive about 80-85 both ways. each way on average i burn rightbetween 1/4 and 1/2 tank. im sure if i were to slow down it would be better mpg. as for everything else, its mostly stop and go city traffic. durring the summer about the only time i have "normal" driving habbits. i wont lie, if i had the money to get the night right runner package on a 4door 4x4 ram, id take that over this. but like i said, im lovin this, runs great. only thing i dont like is sometimes it feels like there is a lump in the power curve.

 

Looking over the mods on your current '97 Ram why are you even considering dumping it for a Dak?Your ride sounds pretty awesome. You are not going to get performance anywhere close to what you are obviously getting now. I'm wondering why. Too expensive to run?

 

Ya I doubt if you'd be happy with the performance unless you at least put comparable crap on it, and it was an ho. Only thing you're going to gain is slightly smaller size, easier to get around & park & stuff. Got 7000 miles on mine now, still like the truck, no regrets on buying it. Real world mileage so far, kinda hohum-80mph freeway about 17. Around town short hops & stuff probably only 13 Doubt if that's much if any better than your fullsize. Only common problem that's bugging me so far is the front shocks-they're horrid & no one makes better ones yet! WTF??

 

Get the 6spd if you can. If you can't drive stick, learn, and get a 6pd.

Much better perf. in my opinion. And I've driven both the 4.7L ATX and MTX.

 

I fully agree with that frenchy, I just wish you could get the ho with the 6spd. And you pretty much have to special order one if you want a 6spd-what's up with that??

 

They don't have as high of a resale, so they pretty much want to make sure it's what the people want.

 

I think people WANT to be lazy & not shift! If I lived in a densely populated area full of stop & go traffic I might want an auto, otherwise definitely a stick (this is the first auto trans vehicle I've owned) Did you have to special order yours to get the 6spd frenchy?

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ya.

6spd, sport appearance, club cab.

All things my dealer didn't have ONE of... all quads, autos, with the chrome.

 

I was all set to order one much like yours only blue (no chrome!) I didn't feel like waiting 3 months, paying more money & getting fewer options since they dealed on this one, which I am happy with. Brilliant black(metallic) I think it's called, looks great in the sun when it's clean. I wanna get a body colored grille but that's gonna be kinda spendy...