At 10:34 PM 5/4/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Good point Mike.....
>
>With all this year model talk going on I've been thinking (well,
>actually it's an idea I've had for quite some time). Who would be
>interested in helping me create a year model identification FAQ for
>Dakotas? There are plenty of visual clues on the gen II's that will
>tell you about what year they are like; third tail light ('94 and up)
>Magnum engine badges ('92 and up, but the badge design changed in '95
>too), other things like wheel designs, paint schemes and stuff like
>this. We could even go into engine component changes like how they
>moved the cruise control module in '93 back towards the firewall
>instead of up next to the battery, the deletion of the EGR valve in
>'96, the smaller Y pipe after '93...... the list goes on and on. I
>think with all the knowledge of the list members combined I could
>compile a pretty thorough FAQ on identifying the year model.
I think this is an excellent idea, Mike. I would certainly be willing
to help out however I can. Regarding the differences, I think it would be
cool to have pictures of the differences too. (Being worth a thousand
years and all.) :-) What about including the Gen I's too? Obviously
those are easy to distinguish via the front clip, but it might not be a bad
idea to put that in there too. I like the idea of going over the
mechanical differences too. (Another example; 9.75" rear available now...)
Another idea; what about something to show someone how to tell a Gen III
Dak from a '93+ Ram? No, that's not a shot at the Gen III's... When they
first came out, I had some trouble telling them apart. Especially so for
the 4x4 Gen IIIs as they are a bit taller. Now, I can easily tell them
apart, but it wasn't so easy at first, unless of course they're parked
right beside each other. A buddy of mine is getting a QC Dak, and his Mom
is always asking him "is that a Dakota?" while pointing at a Ram. :-)
Anyway, I'd be glad to help however I can, and I would certainly be
willing to give it a home on the DML home page. I don't want to step on
any toes here, but maybe call it something like "The Dakota Timeline"? I'm
picturing a different page for each year, and a frame for the person to
click on the years (doesn't have to be a frame though), and each year would
list the differences from the previous year. 1987-2000, and tack on a new
one each year. This is also something that will probably grow larger and
larger as the details get even more nit-picked. :-) Its also something
which would be easy to get started, with a basic skeleton, then fill it in
with data here and there...
This could be really cool! :-)
>This
>could be a subsection of the Dakota FAQ -- BTW, what ever happened to
>the Dakota FAQ??
AFAIK, its dead; never got off the ground. That's another thing which
would be nice to have. :-)
-Jon-
.--- jon@dakota-truck.net -- or -- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ------------.
| Jon Steiger * AOPA, DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA * RP-SEL |
| '92 Ram 150 4x4 V8, '96 Dakota V8, '96 Intruder 1400, '96 FireFly 447 |
`---------------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'
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