1998 Dodge Dakota SLT thoughts?

[FT Mike]

I found a 1998 Dodge Dakota on craigslist that I checked out tonight. He wants $2,200 for it and I'm probably going to get it. I've been saving up and I got about $1,600 right now plus whatever my current truck can catch on the market.

The truck itself has a little over 190,000 miles on it which is a ton of miles. That is my biggest concern about it. The body is in good shape though and it runs and starts good. The four wheel drive worked good in the test drive. He just put on four very good tires that put him in the hole $600. They are a little bit oversized tires which is good. Very nice.

The cons besides the high mileage are more luxury and nusiances than anything else. The air conditioner doesn't work. He thinks he knows what the problem is and it's something I can take a look at but ulimately, doesn't concern me because I never use A/C anyways. I just roll my windows down. The dipstick was broken off when he replaced the water pump but you can replace that no biggie. Other than that, besides the lack of cupholders in the cabin, there isn't anything really wrong with it. It's the 3.9L v6 model which is still bigger and stronger than my v6 in my Ford but I kind of wish it was the v8 dakota...

What are your thoughts on this? I'm not concerned about the body. There are a few scratches and dents (mostly in the bed and tailgate) but very little rust at all. I'm mostly worried about the high miles.

[vamc]

Have a dealership look it over. Thats the best way, could be alot of internal problems. Why would he not fix the dip stick? This should tell you something how the car was kept. The a/c does not work.? She should have fixed it. He sayes he thinks he knowes what it is. that means nobody looked at it or he does not care what works on the car. Like i said before, have a DEALERSHIP look at it and see if there are any problems with it or problems down the road you could run into. Bigger tires?.......Means more stress on the engine because of the weight. How is the transmission? Leakes? Take your time with this one, you might be buying junk! What was the KBB on that car? cant be much. Its the mi. that brings it down in price. thats alot of mi. on that truck for that kind of money. 1 grand sounds more like it. not 2. Dents? from what? rocks or off roading. If from offroading, the transmission could have a ton of problems. Ie....striped gears, bad chain in the gearbox, bad sproket.

[Andydg]

190,000 miles is A LOT! I've got about 135,000 on my 3.9 and I've never had any problem with it, but the not having the dip stick replaced makes me think that this truck hasn't been well taken care of. I mean they can't really check the oil very well without a dip stick...If it were me I'd pass on this one.

[vamc]

I can't agree more!