shooter5635

4wd.

Ol' Bloo

Jeep Comanche or J10. Jeep's with open beds. but the Dakota isn't a bad truck, my friend has a 94' 4x4 with the V6 magnum and it performs well off road as well as on road. I've also driven my other friend's dad's 06' Dakota 2wd that I didn't like nearly as much. Its all a matter of personal preference

Ladies

Get about an '02 dakota with the 5.9 :P ... It'l be fast enough for you! But you'll put as much into gas as you would fixing your jeep lol

shooter5635

Lol yea, only problem is the 00-03 were the problem years.

plotski999

My father just got his second dakota, first was an 04, he got it with about 10k and got rid of it was 150k, had no problems with it other than blowing a water pump, that was the 3.7 V6, no power, but plenty reliable, now he has an 06 that he just got with 18k which has the 4.7, has way more power. I think there nice trucks and from what I've seen there quite reliable.

red_dog007

Could look at S10s. They are solid trucks. Hardbody frame, and I know at least the 80s and early 90s used the same transfer case as the Jeeps. My 92 has 243,000 miles on it and going strong. You can even find these with V8s in them. Very popular swap.


If your looking at $10k, could you go up to $15k? Get yourself a GMC Syclone. 4.3L Twin-Turbo AWD and 0 to 60 in 4.3 seconds! It's my dream truck.

hercman

What's your dad's beef with a full size? If it's a fuel economy thing the Dakota in either V6 or V8 isn't any different then a full size.

My FIL had a 00 Dakota with the V6 and that truck ate two transmissions.

shooter5635

That's the only thing im afraid of it the trans issue with the earlier years

KotaKid287

Really? Problems such as what? I've had my 02 since 04 and have been on two different Dakota forums since getting my first, of 4, Daks back in 02 and can't think of a single issue that is specifically common to that year range aside from the 4x4s' upper ball joints which was a recall and crappy headliner glue which is just an annoyance lol. 03 and up Dakotas have pretty much been completely ignored by the off road aftermarket, only lift options are body lifts and coil spring spacers for the 05+ trucks. Another downfall to a Dakota for stockish wheeling is the aluminum case front diff will most likely disassemble itself rather suddenly with tires larger then 33-35" tall depending on circumstances and the driver's right foot. The 4.7L V8 is a very strong and extremely reliable engine that will treat you very good providing you also treat it good. 99% of all sludge issues that I've seen come across the forums that I read are lack of maintenance and/or poor oil quality related, change your oil on time and that will realistically be a non-issue. Biggest downfall of the 4.7L was/is the introduction of the Hemi, what I mean is Chrysler introduced the 4.7L in 99 in the WJs, several companies started developing performance products for these new engines fairly quickly as in 00 the Dakotas got them also. Things looked pretty promising for the 4.7L guys for a couple more yrs until in 03 the Hemi was the "new thing" and everyone that was working on the 4.7Ls went to work on the Hemis and thus the 4.7L performance aftermarket got shoved to the back burner and is nothing like what is available for the Magnum V8s (318-360), and unfortunately what is actually available is extremely overpriced. There are a few very effective and relatively affordable parts that you can get for the earlier 4.7Ls though, several of which are OEM Mopar parts for later model yr engines, that can get you to between 300-350hp at the crank with a good tune. The 45RFE/545RFE is a very nice transmission that can take some serious abuse, these are NOT to be confused with the "problematic" Mopar transmissions of the mid 90s. I would also suggest looking around the dakota-durango.com forums for even more accurate info, that site is pretty well dominated by 3rd gen owners such as myself, but there is some very good info for all yrs. I saw where the Nissan Frontier was reccomended, while I will agree that they are good trucks that stock for stock may very well be able to either keep up or slightly outrun an equally equipped Dakota, hook both trucks up to a trailer and you will instantly feel the benefits of the torque of the V8 as opposed to the higher strung V6 in the Nissan. I suspect that the performance aftermarket for the Nissan is at least as poor if not even worse then the Dakota's is as far as making power, however I do concede that the off road performance aftermarket is a bit stronger for the Nissan.

Tural

i have an 04 with the 3.7 and i love it. with some minor power adders i can keep up with pickups that claim to have a lot of power. i can tow 5000lbs with no problems whatsoever. i take care of mine very well and i can trust to take it across country any day.
as far as i know the 4.7s are even more reliable.
and i don't buy into that whole nissan eating up a dakota. mine keeps up with my buddy's frontier, and i can only think that a 4.7, which is faster and stronger than my 3.7 would have no problems.

Ladies

I think if you find one that someone has babied.. and you baby it it'll be fine. My friend drives his like a bat out of hell.. and it breaks.. alot. (2002 5.9)

bmrrwolfe

I like the new dakotas, my buddies dad has one (04 I think) and he hasn't ever had an issue with it.
If your going to be towing I would recommend the 4.7 but the 3.7 is good little motor as well. I got one in my KJ, as does my sister in hers, both around 80k with no issues.
Plenty of power for the porky KJ.

Tural

lol this is funny, i still live in the old times. when u said 80k with no issues, i thought, of course, it's still new...
but coming to think of it, for the new generation vehicles 80k is a lot.
i'm happy to say that at 102k, mine hasn't even sneezed yet.