RIP Dodge Dakota 1987-2011

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I agree. My uncle has driven nothing but Dakotas since 1990. RIP
 
I bought a new one in 92' and had it for 14 years. Best veihcle I ever had.
 
mopardrt said:
at one time was a big seller but the last couple years has fallen way down
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I think this is stupid thinking on Ma's part. Maybe a LOT of it is just the economy. I haven't checked "ratings" on these, maybe they have a QC issue they should have worked on.

I find it really really difficult to believe that there isn't a market for this class of pickup. I currently own a 98 Ranger, and would have certainly had Dakota on the list for my next one. The smaller pickups fit my needs perfectly
 
I have an 02 and love that truck. Most of these mountain trails around here a full size gets the paint scraped of the sides from the trees, but my dakota fits perfect. Pulls like a full size and still hauls my wheeler.
 

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Best $500 I ever spent. 318, 4x4, SLT.
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My first hotrod was a Dakota. still have the thing, minus motor, and wrecked in the front, thanks to a dumb drunk person in a parking lot. Guess I need to bury her.. :(

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man i love them the newer ones suck ... i like the 90 to 96 i have had two the 1st one i had when i sold it had 240### miles on her ... this one ive got has 242### on it rip
 
Once again Ma Mopar missed their own boat. They stuck the 5.7L Hemi in a few Jeeps but they wouldn't offer one in the Dakota. I guess they wanted to protect the ancient 360 as the workhorse and sport engine. I would have bought a Dakota with a 5.7L Hemi with the multi-displacement function. "Yeah, it's got a Hemi in it."
 
It's supposed to be back with a unibody platform similar in size to the first generation Dakota. It would be nice with the new 3.6 and manual trans. I had a '94 with V6 and manual trans. Still kicking myself for selling it when I bought a '02 2500 Diesel.
 
I bought one with the LA 318 in it and it worked hard and gave me a great ride and the bed looked like it was 10 foot long, Very fast truck with over 200.000 miles on it.
I forgot the year model, but it looks like streetdak's truck, and the power was there from 0 to well over 90 miles MPH, Plush red int. auto with air.
a great drifter on these Arkansas gravel roads or paved parking lots.
 
I remeber when Toyota and Datsun brought small pickups to the market. The old guys called them spoons.
Their sales numbers were due to list price and cost to operate. American mfgrs jioned hands with the Japaneese to get in that market. Fords Currior was a Datsun and Chevys Luv was Isuzu, and so on until thay could design and build there own spoons. Fast forward 40 years and you'll notice those spoons aren't lower priced or much more economical to operate than a full size truck. Even the Japaneese dont sell as many spoons as thay do full size pickups today.
 
Loved the 98-04 body style. Gonna miss them.

Oh, and the Courier was a Mazda, not a Datsun. Ford actually turned the tables and Mazda now sells rebadged Rangers.
 
duster731 said:
Wtf 500$ I wish
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Yup. Made a thread about that truck some time ago.

My aunt bought it new. My brother got it when she died (Don't use meth kids, it will kill you).

Ball joints and one front hub went bad so my brother parked it in his field for 4 years. He was going to cut the bed off and make a trailer out of it when I asked if I could buy it.

The price was $500 but if I ever sell it I need to give him another $100. lol
 
I'll bet the price on the existing ones will be going up... Everyone I know who has one loves it.
 
Rangers have been suposedly killed off since 2008 but they are still making them last I hered the ranger is DEAD as of next year with the name only being used on the new unibody australian truck as with RAMs new LIFE STYLE unibody fiat truck/car thing
 
The biggest mistake that Dodge made with the Dakota (other than the ugly restyle) was not making the Hemi an option.
And when the 5.9 was replaced with the 4.7, there went the low end torque which really killed towing.

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I have a 97, the first year for that body style. My first hotrod. Love the truck 5.2 auto with around 330-340 hp. I think the big mistake Dodge made was going too big with the 05 plus trucks. The styling was an obvious mistake. They really needed to figure out some fuel economy with those trucks. Never came close to the competition on that front. That and they had them priced WAY too high. I could buy a well equipped Ram for less money.
 
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