I just bought my first Dodge Truck this evening. I would like to have bought a brand new one, but I found an 05 QC SLT 5.7 HEMI with quite a few options. It has just under 10K miles on it. It was a private seller. It is equipped with the factory matching paint hard shell tonneau cover and bed liner. The truck is spotless inside and out. I don't know what all the options are on it yet, but it has the 20 inch wheels, power driver seat, keyless entry, trip computer, etc. I paid about 20K for it. The nearest thing to it that I had found in a brand new truck was about 28K with the same options. That included employee pricing and all rebates and incentives that were available. I would have really liked to have the MD HEMI that comes in the 06 trucks. I figured that it would take a long time to save enough gas with the MD engine to make up the difference between the 05 and a new truck.

This is my first Dodge since my Intrepid bought new in 1995. I ran it 100K miles and it gave me no trouble untill about 98K when the water pump and cam belt had to be replaced. I hope my HEMI QC does as well. The only downside I can see to this truck is the gas mileage. I test drove Chevys and looked at Fords, but both my wife and I liked the Dodges better.

In any case, I'm wondering just how badly I got laid or how well I did overall. I will be looking at a set of step tubes for the truck next week. The best price I've seen on a set I like were stainless steel Big Game tubes for about 250.00 plus shipping. If any of you know of a better deal/choice, please advise me. At some point, if it appears a worthwhile option, I will add a more open exhaust if it sufficiently improves mileage. Also, any tips on maintenance for Dodge trucks will be very much appreciated. I will probably be using Mobil 1 oil changed about 5000 miles. If something else is better, please advise.


Thanks a bunch. I look forward to learning a lot on this excellent forum.


Don Williams (a.k.a. Librarian) of

Don's Guns
New Vienna, OH

05 QC HEMI
04 Saturn VUE 4cyl 5 speed
01 Harley Davidson Electraglide Ultra Classic
05 Kawaski Mule 610 4x4

 

i would go on http://kbb.com and input your trucks info. that will give you a pretty good idea.

 

I assume your truck is still under warranty. Check the outer door seals for the front driver and passenger doors and make sure they haven't been worn through. For a while there, just after the 2005's came out, there was a lot of them, including mine that had to be replaced.

Just a heads up!!

 

Personally if your really happy, I think you did great on the price, the book may be lower but who cares..if you like it and can afford it....you'll be happy and that's what truly matters...not anyones opinion can change that, beside it's too late if you already bought it....congrats I think you did well!

 

I bought my chrome step tubes off of Ebay for 189.00 shipped. I have had them for 7 months and they have held up pretty well. All the harware was included. You could try to look there.

 

Thanks for the replies guys. I did run all the evaluators. Here's what Kelley said:

Private Party 24375.00
Trade in: 20275
Retail: 29000+

At the credit union I do business with, the loan officer ran it through their evaluator and it came out at 26800. The loan officer felt that I had done very well.
Intellichoice's evaluatior said retail of 26000+ and trade in of around 20300
Edmunds and NADA were within a few hundred of Intellichoice more or less.

All of these evaluators can give some idea of what to expect, but I think real world experiences may vary a lot. That's why I sought opinions from others who might have recently made similar deals to mine. Right now, it is a buyer's market for full size trucks. I turned down several other trucks that were low mileage and similarly equipped, but not exactly the same. Pricing around the area among dealers seldom varied more than 500.00. Low mileage 05's tended to run advertised arouind 22K, but I couldn't get any of them to go under 20900. In addition, I came close to buying an 03 QC with 24K miles in nice condition, but the dealer wouldn't move off of 17900. I thought the truck I bought was easily worth 2K more than the 03. Part of the purchase was that my wife fell in love with the truck as soon as she saw it. I initially offered 19K and then drove away after he turned it down, but she hammered me pretty hard to make another offer. So I did, and the guy finally took it.

As for the step tubes, I will be doing some more investigation over the weekend and will probably order about Monday. Thanks again for the input.

 

yeah that price was too high for the 03...i got an 04 1500 slt qc w/ 4.7 20s and 392 gears for 17500. and that was right when the 06s came out now that the 07s are almost out i dont think i would pay as much for the same truck so now an 03 would be going on 4 years old, and i know that i wouldnt pay close to 20k for a 4 year old truck. my dad thinks his 03 is worth about 15k.

 

10K miles is like new- unless it was a rental. I think you'll be happy with the non-MDS engine in the long run. Durability over time has not been established.
I purposely looked at 2500/3500's to avoid the MDS on 2006's. People are complaining about the change in exhaust tone during MDS activation, but the better mileage is a definite plus.

Dodge is more interested in their Corporate Average Fuel Economy than the lifespan of the MDS engine. Same reason they, and other MFR's, "insist" on only recommending 5w-20 engine oil. Sorry, that's too thin for my comfort, even using synthetics.

I'm using Mobil 1 10w30 right now in the truck. Probably go thicker when it gets more mileage on it; 10w-40, 5w-40, or 15w-50. I use 15w-50 M1 in my Cobra.

Mobil 1 is a good oil. I'm sure every Amsoil/Royal Purple/Redline/etc. Dealer on this Forum is going to jump in and tell you how much better their's is. Castrol SynTech is a very good oil, but not worth the price, since it's not a true "synthetic" oil, only a highly refined dino oil. (source: Mobil lawsuit against Castrol & www.bobistheoilguy.com )

If you've ever taken apart an engine that ran on conventional oil and another that ran synthetics, looking at it, you would never use dino oil again. The early Dodge 4.7 motor is know in the industry as a "sludge engine" due to poorly designed oil flow that "cooks" conventional oil. I'm not sure if they ever fixed that block.

I'm looking at getting the Gibson cat-back system for my truck to maybe pick up a little MPG. Less restrictive muffler and air filter are the cheapest/fastest ways to make an improvement.

 

This pics for you Don...
(click attachment to view car plate)

[IMG]local://upfiles/39019/2AB024EB49EB477E816CA71244921F7A.jpg[/IMG]

 

i personally would've went with a brand new one, but thats me