Stealthrob,

Hello, I work at warren truck assy. You know the place where all dakotas are built. Guess what for the past two months we were building very few dakotas. Usually we build about 50 percent dakota, 50 percent ram. Well we were doing 85 percent rams. So you tell me if its selling. Now march does show marginal improvement but that was due to the enterprise rental car orders. Not retail. It still sucks at the retail level. The only thing that was helping it out was the ridiculous amount of incentives that chrysler put on it for a couple of weeks. The durango is up, but not by much, and its incentives have tripled since last year. So what does that tell you.

We just started to build more dakotas this past week, but who knows how long it will last. I hope it lasts forever, because my job is much easier on the daks!
Charger... Lets just say dealers are not even getting excited over this one. And its not even out yet, neither is the refreshed ram, so they are not selling "big time". The only thing selling big time is 300's, magnums, minivans, and the ugly sprinter van.

Joe

 

Hello jgralka

OK Lets just say i have some connections both on the dealer side as well as corperate.
I can tell you the Dealers are Very Excited about the Charger-- The dealers demanded the model.
Also very happy about the SRT's including Charger and Magnum.
Anyone who says "charger stinks, " It wont sell, nobody wants " dosnt know what they are talking about.
People said that about 300c.
Magnum has Been a huge hit for them.
Before Magnum hit the showrooms many naysayers sounded like those dissing Charger.

Also i can tell you Dakota and durango sales on the retail level have gone up quite a bit -- word seems to be spreading.
It got a number of great reviews lately- including several in the "AUTOS" sections of the papers and the mags too
Also look At the gas Prices- & see how explorer, expidition tahoe and trailblazer. have all gotten
"KILLED" lately.
Also "smaller" Trucks havent done great lately , canyon, colorado, ranger etc
and Big trucks havent set the world on fire either.
Against this back drop Durango , Grand cherokee, and Datota are up
Ram holding up pretty good -- Especially since New updated 2006 is coming this year.

Actually from what i see and hear word of mouth and good press seems to be driving grand Cherokee, dakota and durango sales higher each month on the retail level.
Dakota Could use some more ponies from 4.7L or Hemi though.

 

yeah, here in mexico, the dakota will be a production model this year, and people are saying , OH I WANT A DAKOTA. It looks great

 

We don't sell them in Mexico? I thought we did because we build a few for the mexican market every so often. Maybe we are just getting ready to enter the marketplace down there! Like I said before, I wish we built more daks, so this is good news to me. Even though personally I can't stand it. I understand about the 4.7 needing more horse, but it seems dc is just leaving the 4.7 out to die. Its suppose to get redone for 2007, but thats a ways off.

Joe

 

I agree with you 100%. DC made too big of a design change too soon. Look at the Ford Ranger its basically been on the same platform for 20 years with minor changes to it throughout the years, and it still is a popular little truck. DC should have made small changes. What I dont like about it is that the 4x4 dont look as beefy as the 2nd gen did. It just looks like it dont have a lot of clearance on the undercarage....ITS CRAP! Hell, I'll probably buy a Chevy Colorado before I buy the New Dakota.

 

The Ford Ranger doesn't look good at all. It's design is old. AND it's not popular anymore.

 

Yeah the Dakota's only a few thousand units behind Ranger in current-year-to-date sales from the most recent announcements. Dakota was at something like 35,600 and about 1000 up from last year; Ranger was down to about 38,000 and 20,000 down from last year. Colorado and Tacoma are both outselling the Ranger (and the GM twins even outsell the Tacoma when added together.)

 

Another thing is, people say the Dakota doesn't sell that well. Well, I have some news for you, NO MID-SIZE TRUCKS SELL WELL! It just sounds stupid to me, when people say the Dakota isn't seeling well, when nither to it competitors. Technically, it's selling the same.

 

CHARGER -- will be a GRAND SLAM -- just watch (trying to talk my wife into getting one)
DURANGO (new style) -- not exciting, but I wouldn't turn one down
DAKOTA -- STRUCK OUT -- it's FUGLY (sorry, my 2 cents)

 

---Guess what? This is a subjective topic! Not everyone is going to agree on everything! We are voicing opinions here. Your rant was an opinion, and gets the same priority as this post or any other. We can choose to ignore it or not. And it doesn't matter! Some of us choose to have our own opinions, others choose to follow the crowd and to believe the BS figures that DCX released trying to cover their own asses.-----


Well said -- /agree

Saw a dodge dakota up close - like riding in my buddies 05 - Too damn small in the cab for an average adult and the front got hit with the ugly stick hard....

Lets hope the crappy sales tell them not to F up the ram



See ya