Okay so here's my situation. I'm currently in the Air Force in California and I plan to be home soon. I'm having my grandmother find me a truck so I have some when I come home. She's found a repossessed 2006 Dodge Ram 1500.

I'm trying to figure out the features based on what shes told me:

It apparently has the chome 5 spoke wheels, leather interior, four doors, chrome bumper cap. She says its a sharp truck and I believe her but I'm missing two factors: Whether it not it has a hemi and if its 4WD.

She says that those little chrome 4x4 badges you buy at walmart on the rear quarter panel but I'm not sure. Sometimes people buy those and just stick them on there for looks. Also its missing the Hemi badging but I'm hoping that something will reveal that it has either the 4.7 or 5.7, would the VIN number reveal that?

What would you guys do? I trust her but I'm very peculiar about my trucks and I want 4WD and a 5.7 Hemi.

And what kind of mods are available for the 4.7?

 

Dude look at my truck at first glance you'd think, Laramie... at least a 4.7. Nope it's a v6 you can't go off of what it looks like all the time. Get a carfax or you could just call the seller. You should get a carfax any time you buy just for piece of mind. It may not tell you much but at least you'd know if it's salvage.

 

You can use a vin decoder, but the 8th digit in the vin will tell you the engine model. You could use a Vin decoder like THIS. It will give you a print out like this and tell you the engine and if it's 4wd or not.
I have a Hemi and my 8th digit is a 2.

I would def get a carfax on a repo'd vehicle. If your out for a Hemi, I certainly wouldn't settle for the older HP output of the 4.7L's. I wouldn't get a 4.7L unless it were atleast an '08 or newer. 235hp isn't enough especially with the gas mileage not being any better than the hemi.
A 6cyl defeats the whole purpose of a truck if you use it for anything other than grocery getting IMO, plus the resell is not as easy either nor as much.

Ram truck 8th digit identification:

2 = 5.7L Hemi
D = 5.7L Hemi
N = 4.7L
P = 4.7L Flex fuel
k = 3.7L and is only in 2wd Rams
c = 5.9L Turbo Diesel

I got those off Autozone's website for engine choices. Hope that helps?

 

I worked nights and weekends when I was in college repossessing vehicles for a bank in the Hudson Valley of NY when I was about 20/21 years old. Let me tell you from experience, people tend to TOTALLY dog a vehicle when they know they are gonna lose it to the bank! And if people can't make their monthly payments, do you think they are gonna pay for maintenance?

You can get lucky and find a good one. I used to look 'em over real good and tell friends and family who were looking for deals when we got one that was cherry, but in all honesty, that would be about one in every 10 to 12 cars/trucks that would come in...

 

Well, it's a good buy. My uncle gave it a once over and said that it had been well maintained and everything was copacetic. The only kicker is that I don't think its the Hemi, which is a real downer.

If it isn't the Hemi, what would you do? The truck is selling for 10,800. Its a 2006 Dodge Ram 1500, leather interior, 20 inch five spoke wheels, four-wheel drive, black exterior gray interior. That's about all I know. I'll have a specs sheet tomorrow or Friday hopefully.

 

If the mileage ain't stupid high, that's a steal, even if it is a 4.7!!!

Unless your uncle is a mechanic though, I'd pay the $75 or so to have it check over by a mechanic and have a compression test done! Unless things have changed in the twenty years since I worked for the bank, they will have no problem with that.

At $10,800 there is a lot of room for some repairs, but NOT a new engine... Better to invest $75-100 and be able to walk away then to pay almost $11k and find out down the road you need to pony up another $8k in an engine with installation!!!

 

I guess all these jobs you have posted you HAD over the years gives you a good start on retirement . Did you have a pension with this one ?

lol
ol f-ker lol you crack me up . you have posted that you have done it all and seen it all in a ton of post . you must be either full of crap or was a real busy man over the last 60 years or so .

 

Summer of 1987, Norstar Bank of the Hudson Valley, NA... call 'em up...

I worked a bunch of part time jobs when I was bouncing around the minors and playing semi-pro ball. You didn't live very well making about $650 bucks a month in the low minors even in the mid-late '80s.
Not to mention I started working in my grandparents Italian restaurant at the ripe old age of 9 and was working summers in the awning and canopy shop my old man part owned when I was about 12.
Kids got it REAL EASY these days!!!