On Wed, 14 Oct 1998 Toomey2me@aol.com wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> Yesterday had to be the most exciting, fun filled day I have had in a long
> time. i went in to get my routine service and tires rotated at the dealer.
> They had 2 Dakota R/T's. One was in the showroom, purple fully loaded and the
> other was a Flame red fully loaded sitting on the lot. Both were club cabs and
> were around $25,000. Needles to say I had to drive one. I told one of the
> sales guy I was thinking about trading in my 97 dak. First we went in a ride
> in a Durango, nice interior, but didnt have the acceleration I am used to in
> my Dak. Then a ride in the R/T, I didn't want to get out once I got in. I
> wanted one, but i wanted a stick. The guy said that you lose towing capacity
> with a stick, so he didnt think they were going to be coming out with a 5
> speed, but he also thought that the Dakota didnt come in a 5.2. This is my
> first close encounter with an R/T. Actually I haven't seen one on the streets
> around here. I wanted to trade my Dak in for the R/T, but I had to control
> myself. Luckily, my girlfriend was with me to calm me down, she wants the
> Durango, but she would also settle for the R/T.
>
I dunno if I'd consider the R/T "settling". ;-)
Just a couple of comments on your post:
Sounds like you might've gotten a doofus salesman; if he doesn't even
know the Daks come in a 5.2, what else doesn't he know? :-)
(Minor digression for one of my pet peeves: Is it too much to ask that a
salesperson know his product line if he expects me to plunk down $20,000+??
If I were a car salesman, I would want to know everything that there is to know
about every single one of the vehicles I'd be responsible for selling. [within
reason, of course] Why is it that so few salespeople seem to do this???). Ok,
I feel better now. :-) Where was I? Oh yeah...
First of all, if Dodge offers a stick for the R/T, I'm sure towing capacity
will be the LAST thing on their minds. Sure, some people tow with the R/T,
but its probably not a major factor in the mind of someone who would consider
the R/T in the first place. Second, I'm almost positive that a stick would
allow MORE towing capacity, not less. I could be wrong about this, and I've
never researched it myself, but I've heard from a couple of people that the
manual Dak is rated to tow heavier loads than an identical auto. I think this
is a general trend throughout the industry. Standard = more towing capacity.
Towing. Hee hee hee! :-)
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ----------------------------------------.
| Jon Steiger * AOPA, DoD, EAA, MP Race Team, NMA, SPA, USUA * RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT CC (14.77@92.97), '96 Kolb FireFly 447 |
`--------------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'
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