Comments: 1-15, 16-29
Without saying everything...
Besides the usual wear and tear items, just about every sensor died on the same day. That resulted in a huge hassle from seeminly incompetent service ment at the local Dodge Dealership. It turns out they were unable to diagnose the problem becasue my truck was "to old to use their new diagnosis system". Three visits no resolve. I used the onboard diagnosis (the key trick) and it indicated almost every sensor in intervals. I then replaced them, no problems.
The truck had an issue with missing. Took it to another dealrship, they could not replicate the problem, but were able to tighten my timing chain. The next day the problem resumed, only this time it was worse. While driving it to the dealrship the timing chain snapped, bad things followed. Really tightened that chain up didn;t they? Turns out the truck was missing becasue the cap and rotor needed replaced.
Water pump quit working for no apparent reason, I had to replace that as I absolutly refused to take it back to the dealers.
Fuel pump needed replaced. What a pleasure it is for that to quit working while your stranded on 322 in Milroy Pa. Amish country has so many service stations on a sunday afternoon, or a noticable lack of cellular reception.
All wiring had to be replaced along with pluggs and the cap and rotor again less than 6K miles after the rotor was originally replaced.
OEM fuel pump died 11K miles after it was replaced, replaced with an aftermarket pump, no problems to date.
Air conditioner still does not consitantly blow cold air, no mechanics can figure it out.
Heater stopped working yesterday while driving back from Philly. A six hour drive with no heat in sub zero weather is not enjoyable.
Alignment needs adjusted every 10K miles.
Paint has peeled off the hood even though I religiously wash and wax it.
Cigarette lighter won't provide steady power.
Upholstery has fell down.
Oil Pressure sensors died.
The coolant has a habit of leaking at random intervals for no apparent reason, even with a 4lb cap.
Averages 8 miles a gallon city even with new fuel filter.
Well, all I really have to say is my old 77 chevy half ton with a 454 five speed manual got better gas mileage. Even with 6 inch body liftes, 4 inch suspension lift, and 44 super swampers. I regret selling that truck and buying a dakota pluss a semesters tuition. These trucks are unreliable, underpowered, and poorly built. I want my chevy back, but that will have to wait until after college.
The truck is a 1991, with 114000 miles on it when acquired by you, and you are calling it a piece of junk? It probably is! The truck is 14 years old!!! What did you expect from a truck that old, with that many miles on it? Your review is useless in that any smart person would expect things to start failing on a vehicle that old with that many miles on it. If you want a reliable vehicle, try purchasing one with a hundred thousand less miles on it next time!
I totally agree with the first comment. It is absolutely mind-boggling that so many of these reviewers who complain about their vehicles and bash the manufacturers, are complaining about very old, high mileage vehicles.
Somehow it seems they expect to pay very little and expect these old vehicles which are ready for the salvage yard
to perform like new vehicles.
I find your review to be absolutely worthless and almost slanderous to Chrysler Corp. (I am by the way, not a fan of Chrysler, but this review is grossly unfair, in my opinion)
Although there are quite a few reviews on this site from people who buy high-mileage beaters for cheap and then gripe because they need repairs, in defense of this reviewer, the truck was only 10 years old at the time it was purchased, and although 114K miles would have been considered very high mileage 15-20 years ago, it would not be anymore nowadays when people expect to (and do) get 150K-200K miles out of their vehicles before needing to make major repairs.
It would also appear that the reviewer was the victim of incompetent mechanics, even though they worked for the Dodge dealership, accounting for at least some of the problems he had with this truck. You might expect to find incompetence at Eddie's WeFixEverything, but not at the dealer!
Anybody who has a Japanese vehicle can't agree that 114K miles is a lot to expect without major problems. How about a 15-year-old Honda with 170K miles and the "check engine" light has never even flickered.
Its also not too much to expect a dealer to look after a vehicle for as long as a buyer brings it in. What's wrong with that? They should be proud partners in keeping what they build on the road.
The general public has a stake in short-life, throwaway vehicles. We all pay the environmental costs of disposal. We should all hold manufacturers accountable for the good used of the considerable resources that go to making a car in the first place. Making and selling a poor quality vehicle and failing to support its full life-span should not be tolerated.
Our college friend has a justified complaint. Too many problems and not enough help from the dealer/ manufacturer. Our low-expectation commentators are nicely conditioned and thoughtless consumers of the lowest mental caste.
The bottom line is, do not buy a 10 year old vehicle, with 100K plus miles on it, and expect it to be problem free. What happened to you does not surprise me at all. Unless it was your father's truck, you have no idea how it was driven or maintained prior to you purchasing it. Your review is definitely not a fair judgement of the Dakota truck.
This truck is a pile of junk. There is no need whatsoever for a vehicle with 114, 000 to be so blatantly unreliable and hazardous to your safety. I can see some things going wrong, but all those issues! If I were you, I would just try my best to get something else. Cars should still be running strong at 114,000!!! Why do you think the owners' manuals provide service routines until that high a mileage, or even more?
To the author of the fourth comment.
You must trip over a lot of curbstones holding your nose so high in the air.
By the way I disagree with you, you are yet another example of someone with unrealistic expectations of what an older high-mileage vehicle should deliver. Unless of course you can vouch for the way his truck was treated and maintained
during it first ten years and 114,000 miles.
As for being of the "lowest mental caste", I sure must've fooled ALL of my college professors during ALL of my
sevens years of undergrad and grad school, huh? How else could you explain my carrying a 4.0 GPA?
In the future, watch for those curbstones.
I think I would have to agree with reviewer three. It would appear as though the poster has been a victim of poor dealership service. Can't say I agree with with the "American pile of junk" heading, but I understand his embitterment as I too have reiceveved very poor service from Dodge Dealers befor. It seems some things just don't change.
As far as the other reviewers go, 114000 miles is not a lot by todays standards. 114000 miles would be high back in the days of that 77 the poster mentioned.
When you called the truck underpowered, what did you expect comming from a 454 to the V6 in the dogde? You can't compare a nascar to a puddle jumper.
I belive that the first two people who reviewed missunderstood the poster. He would appear to have written a review on the service more than the truck itself. I don't find any "slander" in the review.
And while were on the talk about GPA's, I carried a 3.8 to a masters degree in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania.
One final note, there was no SLT model, if your refering to the luxury model it was the LE.
As far as the "slander" goes, I was embellishing to make a point, and I believe I said "almost slanderous". Perhaps it was a reaction to the title "An American Pile of Junk".
This in my opinion is out of line, he didn't simply say a pile of junk, he threw the "American" in there. That in my opinion is perhaps not slanderous, but at least shameful.
I hear what you are saying about service though. It seems poor service is now the rule rather than the exception. It seems I can't bring my car in for service without getting it back with something damages, or at the very least I end up paying for something that wasn't repaired correctly, if at all.
I must disagree with the statement that 114,000 isn't high mileage. Please remember that this isn't a little commuter vehicle, this is a pick-up truck that very well could have led a very hard and under-maintained life.
This review has brought a wonderfully healthy debate on this topic, with the exception of comment number four, who apparently sees fit to resort to name-calling those who do not share his point of view.
I enjoyed the debate and look forward to reading more.
Ohh my, such a reaction to my review. Ohh, thank you for the correction, the truck is an LE. I saw the mistake after I submitted the review. Well, lets clarifiy a few things.
The last reviewer stated that calling it an American Pile of Junk is "shameful". I know what our great country is going through and regardless I am a proud american. However, the truck is an American brand. Would it be fitting to call my Dakota a Korean pile of junk? Somthing like that would be rather missleading don't you think? However if you take to notice the whole marketting thing, how many people took interest in this article? The catch word (in this case the word "American") was very effective in getting people to read and respond. Right or wrong word choice is not to argue at this point, rather than it was effective in getting you and everyone else who continues to read this forums attention. Ethical? Maybe. Effectice? Certainly.
Now for the fellow who suggested that I try "Buying a vehicle with 100K less miles. Besides a chuckle to myself, this is my first thought. What kid comming out of High School and going to college can afford a brand new truck when he or she is getting ready to dump $75K dollars into an education? Did you go to college? Did your mommy or daddy pay for everything? That would be about the only way you could have had a vechile with 14K miles. Hell, I got a hard enough time paying my tutition, food and fuel for little V6 claiming 8 MPG city and 15 Highway. It would be a vehicle that is less than a year old. News Flash, my parents are not putting a dime into my education nor my vehicles. I work two jobs just to meet my expenses. I don't have two dimes to rub together after my bills are paid.
Now, as far as not knowing how the truck was treated before I bought it. I bought the truck from the original owner, a 55 year old woman who was widowed without children as a result of her husband (My uncle) being killed in Vietnam. While its not my "Daddy's" truck, it was my Aunt's. The truck was purchased in Pittsburg PA. As you may or may not know, there is nowhere in the steel city to take the truck off-road or abuse it in a likewise mannor. Ohh, and I have complete service records. She changed the oil at the local Jiffy Lube every 3 to 3.5K miles.
Now, how do I treat the truck? All my miles have been mostly highway, driving from Harrisburg to my home near Erie. Occasionaly I have a tank of all city miles. My truck has only been off road to drive around the back of the house to be loaded to haul some boxes of stuff I was taking to college on move in day. That is it. Only off road once, only hauled 10 boxes once. I have only used the four wheel drive twice to get out of an icy driveway, Erie has a lot of snow. And I have my own records of changing the oil every 3K miles. So we can't even think its how the vehicle was treated, its been babied.
Now that we know how I drive and who used to own it, let me clear some more things up. My intial review IS bashing the Dakota lineup. Read into the other reviews, it seems I am not alone in my troubles. Dodge has some serious quality issues. You want more proof, look into the poor folks who own Durangos. Seems they have some serious issues too. (Conviently a Durango is based off a Dakota no less) Also, it is bashing the piss-poor quality of Dodge service. When they can't be bothered to work on your truck becasue it is older. The people they hire are NOT mechanics. All they are are Dodge certified computer readers. All they do is plug your vehicle into a computer and fix what the computer tells them to. They have little to no troubleshooting skills that a Mechanic does. The service blatenly sucks. And this is what our great American vehicle maker "Dodge" is putting out to service the vehicles. Hell, logic would say that a truck that is 14 years old would have an awful lot of documentation on it. It would seem to me that 14 years of practice servicing that model would be wealth of information. To not be able to figure out an air conditioning unit is crap.
114K miles being a lot for a pickup? Not hardly. Mr dads 96 F-350 diesil has more miles and has only ahd bearings replaced. My neighboor has an 85 Toyota pickup with over 300000 miles on it. It runs like a champ. It has only had its tires and belts replaced. Nothing else outside of oil changes and the filter that goes with it. And he is not the only person I know with an old Toyota pickup with astonishing miles on it. Do I dare say the Japenese use better quality parts and have better Engineers? I know that can't be true as the japanese copied our American designs then improved them. Nobody said they were stupid, but they sire do offer a great product. I personaly support the american econmy and will never purchase any foriegn car. I came to this site looking for reviews on a quality American made car, and the Dakota is just a hit or miss type deal. It seems as if my attempt at a Dakota was a miss. To the die-hards, best of luck, but anyone else I would be wary of this or any Dodge vehicle.
Well guy/gals, I got to be going to my Web Security class. Keep on posting, this is interesting.
You could have simply called it "a pile of junk".
And you could have worded your comment in a more professional manner.
And you could have utilized the spell check feature before submitting you review and follow-up comment.
True for the main review, didn't have time for the second follow up. As stated in the second review, had to go to class. Also, the spell checker this site uses is rather inefficient for reviews longer than a paragraph.
Wow, this is a large and interesting string of comments. To the author of the review, I have a 91 dakota sport and have had similar problems. Your case seems to be an exception however with the sheer quantity of problems you ahve been having.
To the commentors who "found this review to be worthless/almost slanderous". If you suggest a vehicle with 100000 miles less, why are you looking up dakota's from 91? Are you that bored? Or do you just have that much free time to research vehicles 14 years old? It would seem as if you were looking for someone to argue with. After all, if you don't like the review you don't need to post a comment to argue. Not everyone has the same opinion as you do. What makes your opinion better than his? The spell check?
This is my opinion, and take it just for that. Everyone needs to shift their mentality just a bit. I am going to share some wisdom with all you. All cars are good and reliable for the first couple years, its after the vehicles get older and have high mileage when we see the great cars shine. Its after the years on the road when we see jsut how good the vehicles are engineered. Therefor in my opinion, (take it just for that) I find that the people who say how great and reliable their new cars are to be worthless reviews. You do not know how reliable that car is untill after years have passed.
Also, to the author of this review, do you really need to be having one line conversations with one of your reviewers? Just call each other if you want to argue about spelling and professionalism.