Here is my answer to Mark and his wife.
Sorry about my longing for the big ram truck, but Dodge does make a fine
large truck series!
1994 Dakota 5.2l 5 speed (R/T in progress)
Bill Countie
e-mail wgcount@husc7.harvard.edu
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 10:35:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Bill Countie <wgcount@fas.harvard.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of <Mopar@mopar.tamu.edu>
Subject: Re: Looking at new trucks
On Tue, 23 Jan 1996, Mark Klemkosky~ wrote:
>
>
> Well, the wife says she wants a new truck. I figure I might as well ask
> you guys why I should (or why I shouldn't) buy a new Dodge truck. She
> currently has a Toyota truck (small size) and I laid down the law that
> the next beast is going to be full size (ie: Domestic).
Stuff removed -----
Hi Mark,
I'm one of the truck owners of the group and my experience in the
other lines of trucks petered out when I bought my Dakota in 1994.
I tried the Ranger, the S-10, the Toyota, and the Nissan. Being a fairly
large guy, my left sholder/arm would be restricted in the other
small trucks. My head in the Ranger and the S-10 was very close to the
roof so hats were out. Size of the cab may not be important to you as you
are comfortable in the Toyota.
The power available in the small truck line is now about equal,
hovering around the 200 hp mark for the V6 engines they all have. The
Dakota has the only V8 so far (now that the explorer has a V8 a ranger V8
shouldn't be far behind I think) and it has a great deal of torque on tap
for heavy towing and load carrying (a 2000# rating is available) (you can
tow 5200# with the V8,3.55 or 3.91 rear and the towing package. You can
get an extended cab for all the smaller trucks at the cost of bed length.
My 2wd Dakota is comfortable, powerful, easy to maintain, but it
is not flashy at all. No graphics. No wild colors available. You could
view this as an empty page where your talent may personalize it.
If I had my choice of trucks, I would choose the Ram T300. The
interior room is matchless. I like the "power wagon" look and the amount
of space in the engine bay that will hold a V10 or a Cummings diesel, but
will hold a 5.2l V8 nicely thank you and give good performance (not as
good as my Dakota with the same gear but you can't repeal the laws of
physics). I didn't have $13,000+ to buy one. That was what it cost for
my Dakota with cruise, air, 3.55 rear, sliding rear window, HD shocks,
Sport Package, guages, intermittent wipers and am-fm cassette with the V8
and a 5 speed.
Good luck Mark on your purchase. Drive them all!
> --Mark
>
1994 Dakota 5.2l 5 speed (R/T in progress)
Bill Countie
e-mail wgcount@husc7.harvard.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:20 EDT