Low Miles ??

I have a 2000 Dakota I bought new, it has 229K on it. It has been a very good vehicle, very little trouble with it, doesn't use oil.

I had a 74 B300 Dodge van I bought new, it was a major piece of ****. From new it needed a quart of oil every 1100 miles. It had major build quality issues such as developing a half turn of play in the steering after a week. It had problems that were not correctable. In spite of all of that,I grew to like it and kept it. Had to go through the engine at 80K because it was sucking oil like mad. Drove it 160K in 12 years, ultimately had to junk it because of terminal rustout that made it unsafe to drive.

The Dakota has very little rust, I hope to keep driving it for a while. Vehicle quality is light years ahead of where it once was. I also bought a 69 Dart new, build quality wasn't too bad but it, too used a quart every 1100 miles.

I find it incredible that 79 Magnum lasted as long as it did, good care or not, because build quality went steadily downhill during the 70s and bottomed out around 80 and then slowly started to improve.