Why a Dodge Dakota?
For the past three years, I'd been ogling Dodge Dakota trucks, either on the TV commercials or on showroom floors, waiting for the day I could finally get one. I don't know exactly what the appeal is but something about the looks of these trucks has had me dreaming of owning one. Maybe it's symbolic of the "Alpha Male" syndrome. You know. That desire to have a vehicle that looks like it could pull an aircraft carrier WITHOUT the boat trailer, climb Mount Everest without leaving you feeling like you just rode in a blender and have the spunk to go from 0 - 60 in less time than it takes you to blink. Okay, so perhaps these capabilities are slightly exaggerated, but you get the picture. In any case, I wanted one of these trucks and with my impending transfer to a duty station that will be three hours from home, a second vehicle was going to be necessary.

How I bought my Dakota
Prior to actually going out to purchase my "Dream Machine", I knew it was only good, common sense to find out as much as I could about it. I wanted to get a feel for what the available options were as well as a general price range, before I ever got to the "putting my money where my mouth is" stage. So, of course, before looking anywhere else, I started checking out other's epinions about the Dakota series of trucks. It wasn't long before I had the impression that the general consensus was that these were some quality trucks, with various options and features and that the majority of owners had nothing but litanies of praise about their four-wheeled, mechanical pets. Now it is my dubious pleasure, to add my own words of praise about what I feel is probably one of the best, if not THE best truck on the road today.

I then looked around at various on-line auto-buying sites; www.autoweb.com, www.autobytel.com, www.carsdirect.com, www.invoicedealers.com and www.driveoff.com, just to have some good, comparative figures for what this truck SHOULD cost me. The price quotes I received varied from $24,000 to more than $26,000, depending on the various options and extras.

With a fair idea of the price-range I would be working in, I contacted my credit union to see if I could qualify for a new car loan, so that I could walk into a showroom or onto a lot with the money basically "in my pocket". As with the average consumer, my credit is okay, but not stellar, so they were willing to approve me up to a maximum of $20,000 at 9.9% APR for 72 months. Well, this was at least good to know as sort of a "fall-back" if I weren't able to arrange something else as far as financing was concerned. After contacting the credit agencies and requesting a copy of my credit report, I was nearly ready to "face the demon in his lair", as it were.

Within a couple of weeks, I had the copy of my credit report as well as my listed quotes from the online car buying sites, so I set off to see what kind of deal I could swing at the local dealerships. In the end, the dealership I ended up buying my truck at gave me what I felt was a pretty decent deal. I was able to get the truck I wanted, with the options I liked for just under $23,000. The only down side to the whole thing was not being able to convince my credit union to cover me for the additional $3,000, so I ended up financing through the dealership. Cringing from the words of woe I'm sure are abounding by now. I can't say that I felt that I got COMPLETELY robbed in the financing deal. The financing was for 72 months (same as the offer from the credit union) but with an APR of 11% (higher than the credit union). The higher percentage rate is going to gouge me a bit, but as I'm making more than the required minimum payment each month, I hope to ease the bite from the interest. And now, on with the important stuff.

Basic features
As I wanted to ensure I had a little more interior storage space (I have a stereo system with a nice set of boxed woofers I want to install later), I opted for the 2001 Dodge Dakota Sport 4X4 Club Cab model as opposed to the standard cab. I could have gone for the Quad Cab, but as I have no intention of carrying passengers in the back seats, I felt the additional cost of a slightly longer frame and the two additional doors was unnecessary. I preferred the body design/moldings and the overall appearance of the Sport model to the standard and XLT models. Again, this is probably just an extension of the "Alpha Male" thing. You see one of these things, you have to admit, they look pretty slick.

The interior consists of a split-bench front seat 40/20/40, with a center folding armrest that includes a pop-up cover and interior storage area with some coin slots for nickels, dimes and quarters, some slots for holding CDs or cassettes and a general open area you could put papers, a cell phone or other small items into. On the floor, between the driver and passenger sides, is a console with adjustable drink holders and a couple of good sized open bin-like areas for placing things in that you want to keep handy. The rear seats are 60/40 folding benches with under-seat storage compartments.

As I have my own after-market stereo that I had removed from one of my previously owned vehicles, I had no need or desire to splurge for one of the higher end stereos that are offered. The standard radio package includes an AM/FM stereo radio w/cassette player and four speakers. Even though this was the lowest end option for stereo equipment, it still has some good quality sound.

Some of the extras
Some of these are options that come standard when you choose the Sport model of the truck and others are ones that I specifically chose due to personal taste.

The truck has A/C, a solid rear window with defroster that also works the heating elements in the side mirrors, cruise control on the leather-wrapped steering wheel and intermittent wipers. The instrument panel includes your fuel, water and oil indicators as well as a speedometer and tachometer. It also has remote keyless entry, power locks, power side-mirrors and power windows with the driver side one-touch down capability. The truck is equipped with driver and passenger side airbags, with the capability of turning off the one on the passenger side using the key. It is also equipped with standard anti-lock rear disc brakes. The rear-view mirror is equipped with an auto-dimming switch so that it will reduce glare from headlights during nighttime driving. This is a feature this is part of the overhead console group, which also includes a small flip-out tray designed for holding glasses/sunglasses or could hold a cell phone, a three-button programmable HomelinkŪ Universal Transceiver which can be programmed to operate your garage door opener and even your automatic lighting switch in your house (if your home is so equipped) and a digital display showing trip odometer, fuel economy, estimated miles left before tank is empty and a temperature and compass readout.

With the Sport package I also chose the 4.7L MagnumŪ V8 engine with the automatic transmission w/overdrive and, of course, 4WD providing 230HP. The 4WD selector is just to the right and below the steering column, on the dashboard. You can shift from 2WD to 4WD HI either while sitting still or driving down the road, but it's not recommended to do it at speeds higher than 45MPH. To shift from 4WD HI to 4WD LO it is strongly recommended to be stopped or not going faster than 5MPH. It has heavy-duty suspension with a front stabilizer bar and a rated load capacity of 1,750 pounds. I also chose the towing package that included 136 Amp alternator, 750 Amp battery and additional cooling systems for the engine, transmission oil and the power steering. This also includes the 7 to 4 pin adaptor, a class IV receiver hitch assembly and a 7 pin wiring harness.

With the Sport package, the grill is painted the same color as the rest of the truck. In this case flame red. The speeding ticket magnet in me tells me this was probably not a prudent choice in colors, but once I saw it, I had to have THAT color. The tires are P235/70R16 all-terrain tires, with white lettering and 16 X 8 inch cast aluminum wheels which really give the truck a sharp appearance.

Some items of interest
For a 4WD vehicle, the truck has a rather smooth ride on the highway and surface streets. The suspension doesn't cause you to bounce off the ceiling with every little bump in the road but you're not going to be able to cut diamonds while riding in it either. The gas mileage is within acceptable limits, when taking into consideration that this is a 4WD vehicle and they have a tendency to drink up the go-juice like it's going out of style. I have been getting roughly 15 MPG on the highway and about 9 MPG on city streets. When the windows are up and you don't have on the radio or A/C, the exterior sounds are kept to a low level. The seating is comfortable with plenty of leg and headroom in the front seats. The back seats are a bit cramped, especially for leg space, but as I don't intend to have passengers back there (at least not very often) this wasn't a major concern. Even though this is a 4 x 4, it doesn't sit so high off the ground you need a collapsible stepladder just to get into and out of it. However, if you DID need one, you could always just carry it along with you in the ample space of the truck bed.

All in all, I'm a very happy new truck owner. I wasn't able to get exactly what I wanted out of the financing, but I WAS able to get the truck I wanted, with the features I wanted and still be able to afford the payments. The only real down side to the whole thing is that I bought the truck while I was home on leave in November and December. I was only able to drive it for 3 weeks before reporting back to my duty station and won't be able to get home to drive it again until March. I hope I can wait that long.