>Am considering lease or purchase of Dakota Club Cab LE with V8 4WD, Does
>anyone have any experiences out there good or bad to relate?
I had a Jeep before my Dakota, and I have done some trails that I used to
do with the Jeep. The only real issue with the Dakota is ground clearance.
I have a regular cab, so yours will have even more trouble. If you don't
intend to do serious off-road driving, it will be perfectly OK. Actually,
I have surprised many people by piloting the truck on trails that even
modified and lifted vehicles had trouble. And this was done bone stock!
Granted I may be an above average driver, but the vehicle is very sure
footed and handles very precisely at slow speeds.
My family owns a house in New Hampshire which is at the bottom of a VERY
narrow and steep hill. Generally, in the winter, nobody drives down the
hill because of the chance they can't get back up. For years, I took my
Jeep down in all kinds of conditions with little or no trouble. The Dakota
also has worked beautifuly. This year, the hill is caked in hard packed
snow making the climb slick and tricky. Even walking up or down is
difficult as your feet tend to slide out from under you. Using 4-low and
an easy throttle, the truck finds traction and rarely slips a tire.
On the other end, the V8 has lots of power. Hauling, and towing are very
easy and you should see the size of trailers this truck is raited to
pull!!! Highway driving is a dream as you cruise in overdrive knowing that
just pressing the pedal causes the truck to come to life. I have the
manual transmission and I NEVER have to downshift to pass. Just romp and
go.
As for mechanical reliability, it has held up nicely for the first 30,000
miles. All I've replaced on it are the general service items like oil,
spark plugs, etc. I did have trouble with the transfer case recently, but
I suspect the cause was my ham radio bumping the 4WD lever, and not a
mechanical problem because the same transfer case was used in my Jeep which
survived 5 years of SERIOUS off-road use without a single problem.
As with all vehicles, there are a few quirks with the Dakota, but it is
definately the Mustang of the light truck world!
Actually, one guy I know who owns a Mustang asked me to race one day. I
told him sure and that we'd each pick a course < 5 miles and combined low
time wins. We did his section on a strech of highway and he beat me by
about 30 seconds. (he had one hell of a fast car) Then it was time to do
my section. He took one look at the mud and sand and refused to run. I
collected the $50 after a nice easy pass that barely splashed the truck.
Christopher Siano | "How do you control this thing?"
CSiano@Banyan.com | "Who Cares, Go FASTER!"
| -Suicide
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