My guess is because they do not have a manual transmission to handle the output of the 5.9 torque? At least during that time period.

 

I currently own one. I love it. I am in the process of making it more powerful, its gonna be nasty. The reason its an automatic, is because dodge gives you a platform to work with, but you gotta make it useful. If you stick a stall converter in there, its gonna help the auto a lot. My dad always tells me "you gotta pay to play."

~CYCLONE_06

 

Actually I think the R/T was offered every year they made it in club cab or regular cab.

 

I know that it is either 02 or 03 was the last year for the R/T Dakota's. When I bought my 00 Durango R/T, they still offered the 01 Dak R/T. But I know for a fact that R/T Dak's are not available on the 04 models.

 

03 was the last year of production..

 

Thought about trading my R/T in for an 04L. Could have got the L for about 15k with trade in and talk down... Stuck with the R/T though. Reason is the extra weight (and the fact my truck is nearly paid off). The things the L can do with 400hp is what a modded Dak R/T can do with about a 50hp disadvantage. Not to forget handling as well, and the Dakota R/T's nimbleness is second to none when it's panned against the big bulky SRT-10 Ram's, Lightnings, and the Silvy SS'es.

 

in a hod rod magazine article, they tested and found that the r/t wasn't nearly as good as the ford lightning or the chevy extreme. i have a 99 club cab r/t. sure, they do look a lot better, sound a lot nicer, but they do lack some power as compared the the other trucks in its class.i'm not sure about the fact of the manual tranny in them(i believe they do make a ram 360 with a manual tranny in it, same motor why not use it?)the downfall of the dodge auto tranny is that in '99-'00 the tranny they used for the dakota and ram on the 360's was that it didn't have enough fluid giong to the front of the tranny. the reason i know this is because at 86,000 miles my tranny died on me. for the 2001 models they did a complete redesign of the drive train and "fixed" that problem.