Faults:

I realized that my passenger side floor board was flooding roughly 400 miles into my purchase. It was still under warranty, but I was unable to take it back to the original dealer since I was driving across country to my new Duty Station.

100 miles after that, my right turn signal magically turned on my emergency 4 way lights. It occureed sporadically at first, but the farther I drove across country, the worse it got.

My truck "jumps" if I gradually accelerate. I haven't yet dealt with this problem since the local dealership seems to be full enough trying to deal with my electrical problem.

4,000 miles into my purchase, my left brake light stopped working, unless I first put on the left turn signal. When my right turn signal works, my left break light works. Probably the same electrical short the turn signal.

General Comments:

If you live in North Carolina, you're required to get a State Inspection sticker to show that your car or truck is truly road worthy.

I honestly don't know how it passed. I've seen the local Dodge dealer twice. The first problem, the flooded passenger floorboard, was a four hour fix. The second problem they didn't understand and required a my car on another day.

They claimed to have fixed it. The moment they drove my truck out of the shop, I checked my turn signal and brake light. It didn't work.

I'm still waiting for my third appointment.

Faults:

The right front brake was staying on causing it to smoke as we drove down the road.

The starter neede to be replaced at 34000 miles.

General Comments:

The front brake rotors and calipers were replaced. We have not had any other problems. It was covered under warranty.

Faults:

So far it was some kind of low idle motor or something. It would go lower than idle after inching up at toll booths and such. Brought it to the dealer and it was fixed. Heater blower motor resistor board under dash went, but I replaced it myself for ten bucks and its fine now. I complained about road wander, but they told me everything was fine, I didn't complain about warped rotors at the time and now its too late. That trip to the dealer was at 35.000 miles before warranty was up. It still wanders and the front end is tight after many mechanics looked at it, so I'm thinking of changing tires. Surprisingly, no other problems yet after reading so many horror stories. This one is not as good as the other four that I had in the past.

General Comments:

Here is my unbiased opinion. I have had four other Dakotas in the past, and enjoyed all of them, but this one comes from a company that lacks quality control, and has many recalls on many of their vehicles. I don't feel as strong about this one as the others, and only time will tell if I keep it that long. It's a base model, with the only option being limited slip rear, so there is not as much to go wrong with it. I can improve all the things that are weak in the inherent design, but I feel that for what I paid, (this being the first new one I've bought) that I shouldn't have to do that. Why should I have to upgrade the braking system, and the fuel system, for better performance, etc.? I know I won't buy another Dodge again, the only question is how long I hold on to this one. My past Dakotas were an '87, '94, '96, and a '99. I loved all of them, but Dodge is now skimping on quality, and service.