>On the topic of theft, it has always been a game with one of my friends to
>break into a new car or truck. He works as a tow truck driver, and has to
>open roughly 10-15 cars a week because of people locking their keys in it.
>The Dakota actually made him swear. He did get it open in about a minute
>and a half, but set off the alarm before the door was open. I won't e-mail
>how he did it, but suffice it to say it was the longest I've ever seen him
>take, and he says it was on par with some of the worst european cars.
A week after I got my 95 Dakota, I locked the keys inside. So I got to test out
the free Customer One service right away. They sent a locksmith, who took about
10 minutes to get it open. I was standing right beside him, and reminded him to
be extra careful w/my new vehicle, so that may've slowed him down a bit.
On a separate note, one minor thing I would change if I was on the design team,
is the parking brake foot lever. It's too close to the door, and when my shoes
are slippery, my shoe slips right off it. But it's happened to me enough times
by now, so I press it much more deliberately now to avoid another slip.
Also, I've been avoiding opening the tailgate this winter. I don't know if it's
always snow, or just plain cold weather, that makes the tailgate difficult to
click into locked position. It seems I have trouble even when there's no snow
at all -- just cold weather.
But, overall, it's handling winter just fine! Because I have 4wd, I don't
bother putting weights in the bed, although I'm sure they'd still help.
Whenever there's a winter storm, I make sure I have a full (22 gallon) tank of
gas, which helps keep the rear-end in the rear, noticeably (as compared to the
way it handles in the snow w/an almost empty fuel tank).
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:07:20 EDT