Pros and cons of dodge

[slantsixness]

Oil and water don't mix, unless it's a Ford.

Quad,
I had an '89 S10 4X4. I had a TH-700XXX transmission in it and a 4.3L V6. I also had a 7/100K mile warranty. I took it back to the dealer 4 times for a bad transmission and 2 of those times, they replaced the whole tranny with a GM "factory new" trans. After 88K miles, and arbitrating with GM, they Bought the Truck back, save for the $3000+ that I had put down on it, which I figured was a fair deal.

That wasn't the only trouble I had with it , either. Front brakes, front hubs, something in the transfer case went bad, the gauges never read right (and that damn digital dash wasn't worth .02, either) I would say That the 4.3L motor was ok, but It shook like it missed at traffic lights, and GM just told me that that was the nature of the V6's.
So, wether I was the only poor bastard to own such a lemon, or maybe your assumption that the trans was "fixed" isn't exactly true in all cases.

I never drove the S10 improperly, and hardly ever off road, unless you consider washing it on the grass in the front yard off road.... I used my ramcharger, or one of my company trucks (all Dodge) to beat around the dirt in.

So how could I have had such bad luck with my 3rd of 4 GM vehicles? And, on the trade-in/ buy back, I did buy an Astro EXT AWD LT with the same damn trans and motor (but vortec) that was in it. The van wasn't nearly as troublesome, but it had it's share too, and 1 tranny at 98K miles, when it was fixed, then sold before it had the chance to die again.

On a lighter note, My brother is a rural route postal carrier, and uses a '96 town and country van as a 'postal' vehicle. Last I checked, he's got over 200K on it with the original trans...

I love chrysler. I trust my vehicles, and I've never been disappointed unless I bought a GM or Ford. Even my Camry drives better than any Ford I've driven.

Now, let's get back to being freindly, shall we?

Slantsixness

[florida_dodge]

I had a vibration problem with my 96 club cab when I first bought it (new). When I complained, the dealer replaced the two piece drive shaft with a one piece. No more vibrations!

[Merlin02131]

Good Morning

Thanks for the reply . I went out on the web and checked some bulletins yesterday and found that issue . I seem my have this problem after using the cruise control as it seems to put a certain drag on the drive train when using for a while . I use the cruise control on a highway every day and after about a month , I get vibration thru the drive train . I stopped using it and the problem went away ( go figure ) . Also , I now have an electrical smelll in the cruise control so I need to get it in for some warranty stuff . I'll let you know how i make out

Thanks

Rich

[slantsixness]

What the?????

This is the pro's and con's thread....
Where'd you guys come from?

I was busily hoping someone had pissed in my cornflakes again, damn!

Oh well,
Have a nice day anyway...

[gitrdonedakota]

i have been reading through the forums on dodge trucks and i have found quaddrivers comments to be very unaccurate. I have a 93 dakota that has 181,258 miles and has never had a tranny issue or any other problem. shes a 3.9L V6 and pulls like a V8! on the other hand, my mother had a 96 ford taurus which dropped the tranny at 96K, and my aunt had the same car that also dropped the tranny 63K. my dad had a 94 ford explorer with 103K which i towed home last week because it died on the way home from work. if ford builds tough stuff then why does a dodge with that many miles tow something home that has 78K less miles and is one year newer. the truth is there is good and bad in everything. sure ford builds a tough truck but so does chevy and dodge sure as hell builds a damn tuff truck!!!

[2.2 Straight six]

a lot of it is in the care taken.

you look after you car/truck, it'll look after you.

[PWMAN]

All makes have lemons though, and more people speak up when something went wrong with the truck than when nothing went wrong. It's doesn't take much to make a dodge automatic last longer, a good tranny cooler is the number one step and effectively doubles if not triples it's life. The other thing is to keep the bands adjusted properly, thats actually something you are suppose to do once a year or so it probably says that in the manual yet no one ever does it.
Do those 2 things and a dodge tranny is actually better than fords. Now I got to admit that chevy has just about always had the best tranny's. I know guys that put 400 horsepower and 700+ ft/lbs of torque with the cummins to a dodge 48RE tranny with the only upgrades being a better torque converter, tranny cooler, and proper maintenance. And I personally had a 94' cummins ram with a manual NV4500 trans and put 325 WHP/750 ftlbs to that tranny and that truck had 255K on it when I sold it with as far as I know the original tranny.
Now I own a 90' Dakota, manual trans the NV2500. It grinds going into second gear only until the fluid gets warmed up which takes about 5-6 miles then it's fine. Not bad for a truck that has 176K on it. It's a 4 banger the 2.5L SOHC and gets over 21 MPG 75/25 city/highway and 25-27 MPG highway at 65 MPH. The only complaint I have is I wish it had power steering, but I'll trade that for the fuel mileage any day rather than getting a V6.