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DODGE DAKOTA QUAD CAB
The Dakota Quad has to be the best designed truck
at a great price in the 4 door segment.
at a great price in the 4 door segment.
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Comments
Bookitty
the back seat was a killer to access and/or ride in for anything but short distances. If someone needs a larger cargo box, then obviously this is not the truck for them. On the rare occasions that I have to haul more than the short bed can accommodate, I use my 5X8 utility trailer. Certain
strokes for certain folks.
Bookitty
regarding the new Dakota Quad 4x4 that suffered a
transmission malfunction the day after I bought it.
By and large, the responses were very
understanding, despite the frustrated tone of my
message.
Since so many people responded, I thought I'd
update y'all.
First, to clarify some points. Yes I did notify
the original dealership, contact Dodge, and have
the work done at a Dodge service center. Just in
case someone else has been through this, let me
clarify the specific problem. I live on a hill. I
park the truck in front of my house, facing up the
hill. I start the truck, place the transmission in
'drive' and... the truck rolls backward. I use
first gear to get off the hill, then the 'check
engine' light comes on. At the Dodge service bay,
the code indicates a "Transmission malfunction".
Anyway, got the truck back two weeks ago. They had
replaced the solenoid that handles the electronic
shifting of the tranny, and reset the thing back to
factory specs. I drove it the whole time without
incident, then yesterday the whole thing happens
again exactly as above and it's back in the shop
again. This thing has spent more weekends at the
Dodge dealer than in my garage.
On a final note, as a last word to those who
latched onto my apparent enthusiasm for the quality
of Toyotas and Hondas - I clarify: I've owned two
Toyota 4x4 trucks and two Honda passenger cars and
had zero problems with the lot of 'em. But you're
right - I chose the Dodge Quad because it is damn
near the perfect truck for a family man who needs
to haul stuff. The Toyota didn't even come close.
So, please God, let them fix my truck this time!!!
Thanks,
Dean
I've got 15,000 miles on mine and have also looked into, purchased and installed (for $1400+) the 3.21 rear for the regular Dakotas. Spank, spank: Bad Dog. Added about 1 mpg and turned the 4.7 into a 'strange beast.' It appears that the tranny ratios are optimized for the Quad, and are NOT worth messing with. In hindsight I wish I'd opted for the 3.92 rear. I might just change mine out at some point down the road, or buy the future HEMI.
a great truck! I've had Fords most of my life (I
traded my 97 F-150 for it), but the
price/value/useabilty of the Dodge Quad Cab is
unbeatable.
Bed Liners: I've read ALL the comments posted on the bedliner topic pages about them, and I've just about decided on a drop in, mainly because of response #20 of 34 above: He says "...The thing about the spray-in liners that I couldn't handle was that they sand the bed down to bare metal and acid etch so that (the product) adheres properly.."
He's right, I'm freaking out about a little
scratch I put on one rail over the weekend, I doubt that I could take someone pouring acid on my bed so their stuff "sticks better".
Only comment is: Most of the writers talk about
GM, some Ford, but NO DODGE owners with bedliner
stories. Anyone out there has any experience with
a Dodge-brand liner? They're about $250 for the
over the rail, same price for under rail. Is an
under rail better if I add rail protection after?
or should I get an over the rail and be done with
it. They also have some good looking mats, but for 60 bucks more, I'd get the whole liner. I had an over the rail in my Ford and it looked good and fit good.
I'd appreciate any help/comments.
Santiago
tank 1 - 17.21
tank 2 - 17.99
tank 3 - 17.6
Tanks 1 & 2 while babying truck/breaking it in.
Tank 3 normal driving with some aggressive acceleration (rubber between 1-2 and 2-3).
4.7L-4x4
31' tires
Automatic
3.55 LSD
"Not a real heavy foot"
2300 miles to date.All of my driving is under 55mph,30-45mph mostly.I have gotten as low as 14.45mpg and as good as 15.25mpg. It seems to be going up every tank full(MPG) all be it "slightly"
With 15mpg mostly city.I am thinking I could get 17-18mpg on the highway.I'll take it.Not bad for an automatic with big meats on it.
Allen-
Allen-
Spoke with the fellow at Ziebart who's going to be praying the Rhino Liner in it over the next week or so... Much of his business is direct with dealers, spraying liners in full-size pickups BEFORE they're delivered to buyers. He indicated that portion of his business has fallen 50% over the past month - A knee-jerk fall in sales due to continually rising fuel prices.
On the other hand, he's spraying LOT'S more compact pickups!
For the record..QC SLT 4.7 Auto 4x4 T&H and a
bunch o' other wonderful 'stuff'...
Almost 1000 miles and I like this truck more and
more. The ride is still great, and even better when fully loaded with firewood and camping gear.
Gas mileage has been averaging mostly in the 13 -
14 mpg range with 75% highway driving, although I
did hit 15.5 once.
Complaint 1, (minor). The trip odometer. I like to
use it to gauge distance to travel to a particular
point and I like to have it constantly visible, not a toggle between T.O. and regular odometer. Also, because of where I position the steering wheel, iti s hidden from view. Maybe I'm old fashioned but I wish it was a dual odometer positioned within the speedometer.
Complaint 2, (minor but less so). Placement of the cupholders. I believe that with a little more thought on placement of the power outlets/cigar lighter, Dodge could have had the cup holder come out of the dash. The way it is now, it is unusable if a 3rd person is sitting in the front, (not very common here), but more importantly, it is right next to the seat so that if your coffe cup has been overfilled, there's a good chance that it will splash back onto the seat. I keep a facecloth draped over the middle part of the seat to prevent that from happening.
Whine: I went over a small curb, (rounded asphalt)and the front end went out of alignment, Its going in Wed to the dealer to be fixed. I wonder if something wasn't tightened properly at the factory
Other than that no other problems.
Story:
Last night my wife took the truck to the
supermarket at about 10. I asked her
to park away from everyone else which she did, the
only car near her was one directly in front of her, but separated from the QC by a big travel lane that runs between the parking rows.
As she returns to the Quad after shopping she sees
that the white car that had been parked across from her is gone. While she is putting the groceries in, an older gentleman who was doing
the shopping cart retrieval comes up to her and
tells her that he saw the car that had been in front, hit the truck.
So now, she is looking all over the truck to see
where the damage is and the guy says to her
'is ok, you got biiiig truck, was little car, no hurt truck'
She keeps looking and he must think she's getting
upset, (she was nervous!), so he keeps repeating
'no problem, biiiig truck, little car' then he
shows her pieces of the car's taillight that
were on the ground in front of the Quad, all the
while saying 'biiiig truck,little car, you ok, car
not'. Now, while all this is happening, a couple comes walking to their car, located a few parking spaces away from the quad. They are both carrying bags of groceries and, although the wife stopped at their car, her husband just kept walking past it, over to my wife with his bags
still in his hand. He comes over and starts saying
'Wow! Now this is a truck! This is a big truck!'
His wife is standing at theircar, groceries in her hands waiting fo him to unlock the doors and he's looking into the back of the Quad, ('cause my wife had the door open from loading the groceries).
He yells to his wife 'Wow! Now this is a truck !'
and then starts talking to my wife, 'This is a truck ! this must have set you back a lot, what didthis cost 35 grand, 40 grand' The guy's wife
tarts yelling at him about why is he asking her the price of the truck, its none of his business, and he keeps saying 'Wow! This is a truck, this is a big truck', and
at the same time, the shopping cart guy is still
saying to my wife, 'is ok, biiiig truck, little
car'.
So, when the show was all over, it turns out that
the shopping cart guy was able to write down the license plate of the car,(apparently he sees those things pretty regularly in his job there).
Of course when my wife got home I HAD to go
outside with the flashlight and check it out.
All the lights were fine and I only found a
barely visible, < 5 inches long, rub mark on the
lower passenger side of the bumper,(which is where the car's taillight pieces were).
I ordered the agate interior. However, the headliner and overhead console is light beige. Back in April, when I looked at several dealers' stock vehicles with agate interiors before ordering mine, I seem to remember the headliner/console being a matching gray.
Just for giggles, .... do any of you with the agate interior have a beige headliner and console?
When the truck first came in, I was happier than a puppy with two peters and didn't really notice it. It doesn't look bad and I can live with it. Guess I'm just wondering if it's a normal combination or if I was a victim of the 'end-of-the-production-year-we're-out-of-those-let's-use -this-instead'.
Jeff
-quark
"Beige" reminds me of a joke.
Question:
"What's the difference between a hooker, a mistress, and a wife?"
Answer:
The hooker says: "Faster! Faster! Give it to me faster!"
The mistress says: "More! More! Give me some more!"
The wife says: "Beige. Beige. I think I'll paint the bedroom ceiling Beige."
-quark (I definitely need something to do, which is obvious....)
My company looks like it will be changing car plans at the end of year. A lot of the guys at work are looking at getting trucks. I've been a Dodge fan even before I could drive and am in love with the Dakota Quad Cab. My friend at work likes it too but is fond of the Japanese iron and is waiting for the Toyota Tacoma 4-door to come out .
I don't need a 4x4 but I like the look and stance of it. My friend is leaning towards the Pre-Runner version (2x4) of the upcoming Tacoma 4-door because of its 4x4 look and stance and the reliability history of Toyota trucks.
Does anybody know if there will be any significant changes between the 2000 and 2001 Dakota Quad models? Also will Dodge ever offer a 2x4 Dakota with a 4x4 look. If not, how could I give one the look (4x4) and still keep its factory warranty intact?
Thanks, cv59
on these interior color combinations and coordinating exterior interior color schemes. She may be correct. She thought that it absolutely looked "stupid." I'm too colorblind to know the difference. That's it, "Dodge Difference!"
Bookitty
Allen-
Getting back to Quads, I just got the bid for a set of 2000 Durango rims off of Ebay and drove up to northern Iowa to pick them up. About 320 miles round trip. I've been averaging about 17.2 to as high as 18.1 for gas mileage. This tank gave me 19.8 with the cruise set on 60 - 65. I was actually averaging 21.1 until the return part of the trip when we had some pretty good headwinds and my wife driving (she has a heavier foot than I do).
This truck is amazing. I, like most everyone else just look for excuses to drive it. My previous 93 CC 5.2 auto was also a ball to drive but most of the time was getting 13.5mpg and in the dead of winter would be almost in single digits.
Getting back to the rims, I bought a 2nd set to put my snowtires on so when winter comes it is less hassle. I have a set of Blizzak 235-70R-15s mounted on 15x6 93 Dak aluminum rims. They would have worked but sure looked funny on a 2x4 Quad with the fender flares added.
Thanks for the feedback on the "cubes", dealer can't help because of personnel changeover. I have found something similar but much more expensive. The cube in it requires it to be mounted vertically and it only flashes when it senses severe deceleration and then it flashes a supplemental LED array which mounts on top of your factory light. Too complicated for me, I'm gonna look at some of the motorcycle sites, maybe they have what I'm looking for.
"Long winded" Rick
My luck, .... mine is built on the day they put Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles in charge of interior color schemes.
Everything else about the Quad is great though.
Jeff
Now, here we go.
Ahem.
The colour (and possibly also the color)
is
BEIGE!!!!!!!
Does that clear it up???
The best place I found to look was as the headliner comes down the pillars, that seemed to have the most consistency in all light conditions.
It makes me feel all warm and relaxed when I get into my truck (agate interior), like returning to the comfort of the mother's womb........
Sorry, got carried away there ;-)
On a more serious note.....
jayb77, I have a club cab manual, but mechanically it is the same. Shift on the fly does work with the standard transmission, and speaking for myself I love it. My views on shift-on-the-fly vs ral time are well documented throughout Edmunds, so I'll admit to a bias in favour of the system, but it is as easy and convenient an application as I have seen. The shift in and out of 4wd can occur at any reasonable speed (if you are driving above those speeds and need 4wd, something is badly wrong).
If you have any specific questions concerning aspects of the system let us know and I am sure people will share their experiences.
I keep thinking about the picture menus in McDonalds and then what you actually get bears little resemblance to the photo. Rick