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Foolish Mistake, Loosing Dodge!

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Dodge VM Diesel 1500

A BIG 10-4 on that!!

When did they stop making the J Jeep pickup? That one looks newish.

The body style was started by Kaiser in 1963. 1987 was the last year for the full size trucks. The truck in the picture is a 1986. It's fun to drive because people are always giving you a "thumbs up" in traffic or want to talk to you about it.
 
The body style was started by Kaiser in 1963. 1987 was the last year for the full size trucks. The truck in the picture is a 1986. It's fun to drive because people are always giving you a "thumbs up" in traffic or want to talk to you about it.

Wow. I didn't know the pickup ran till '86. I had the chance to work on an M-715 way back. That was a truck to remember.
 
I dont share your view of a "Demise of our trucks" My 13 RAM Cummins is a FAR better quality build than my 2004 Dodge Cummins and that is a far better truck than my 2001 Dodge Cummins. .

My only point is, A Dodge is a Dodge"! There is NO DODGE TRUCK ANY MORE. I love the 24 valve and the fact that my trucks (gas and Diesel) are branded Dodge's. These rams they have today appear to be a conglomeration of Europe, ford, chevy, and Nissan. You can't even see the engine anymore because of a big plastic cover and all of the fueling fiasco's you need to go through between "regeneration" and the def stuff, excessive turbo temps, ETC, NO THANK YOU!Sit behind a 1500 ram and a Nissan titan at a stop light and you gots have a pretty good eye to tell the difference. The economy is gone as well. As far as power it can be added to any engine at a better price than the Imported fiat engine.
 
"Sit behind a 1500 ram and a Nissan titan at a stop light and you gots have a pretty good eye to tell the difference."-HUH!?!?!?!
ram1500.jpg
titan.jpg


titan.jpg


ram1500.jpg
 
Dodge has gone through an amazing transformation in the period of time of when Cummins came on board to today. I really would insist that the zenith of dodge and their trucks would have to be between 1997-2000. The build quality and product content was excellent. I firmly believe that CHRYSLER CORP. was doing so well that Daimler felt they had to do something about it. It would have been interesting to see what would have been if DCX never was. The only problem was that there was no real 4 door cab or class 5 C&C at the time.
I'm still extremely happy with our '98 Durango.
 
Look nothing alike

They would if enough of the Peyote was smoked.

I know where your coming from Crazy H. I would love to have one of the little half ton diesel trucks but cant stand the thought of all that crap on the exhaust. I don't know why anyone would put them selves thru what the 4th gen section is putting up with NO THANKS!! Maybe if I needed a new truck and had no choice but they aren't getting any more mileage than my 3rd gen I have enough power for me, and with the extra cost of the DEF WHAT ARE YOU SAVING? and it seems as thou they change oil more than others do?

Wife's Audi has some of that crap on it, I think the Germans may have found a better way of doing it because she ain't had one problem with hers. Same with the Case IH tractor with the Cummins 4BT with the exhaust crap on it not one problem so far.
 
Hey Big. On the wife's Audi, is there lifetime maintenance where they take care of the DEF also? Do they frown upon the customer topping it off? What I heard from some VW owners around here.
 
Wayne
When I bought the Audi for the wife, I asked about the maint. to be done to it. I also bought the Mechanics lunch and asked them about the maint. on these systems. I don't trust Sales people so his thoughts went into the round file. At lunch with the Mechanics they asked about my skills and desires to even mess with this new technology, I have no desire to stick my hands into anything under the hood that has a Frigging computer tied to it. I kind of understand the technology but have no desire to Screw with something that will take time away from the things that I would rather be doing, IE drinking Beer, Making Beer, shooting guns (not necessarily in this order) Mules, Plowing, More beer drinking, YOU GET THE PICTURE :-laf

They had a program that takes care of her car after the initial warranty period was over, They take care of EVERYTHING from tail light to head light AND I MEAN EVERYTHING!!! for X amount of bucks, Im sorry but I cant remember how much it was but was pretty cheap I thought, because I keep cars until the wheels fall off. The Mechanics asked when I told them about buying that program how long I keep things, with the previous statement they said you made the best choice, most people don't keep cars, only until the next greatest thing comes out and then the program would be a waste of money.

She takes it in when it gets near 7500 miles, we have taken it in a 6000 miles and said we are going someplace and it would be over the 7500 when we got back they took it in did EVERYTHING they give a list of what was done and how much IT WOULD HAVE COST, we have yet to pay a dime!!! for anything other than Fuel. The factory brakes on this suck, they replace them and with living in the mountains they go pretty fast ( the wife's driving don't help much either) The only thing that I will have to pay for are tires. They change the oil,filter, fill things up that need it they turned the rotors on the brakes and will replace them when the go bad, windshield wipers catch hell up here in the winter and the spring rains they replace them all the time. They told her next time that they need more time under the hood to do some motor adjustments, she asked and has even less of a clue than me about theses things. So I called they want to run the overhead and do some testing on fuel system components, ALL ON THEIR DIME. They just wanted to let Penny know next time it will be a 3 hour wait for the car or take home one of the loaners.

If anyone ever asks about buying an Audi I make sure they know how satisfied we are with the company. This is the ONLY way that I would have bought a Diesel with the afterburner exhaust system on it, the Mechanics showed me some of the prices of parts and service on that system alone this is why I wont get another Diesel.


BIG
 
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Take the badging off and it's apples and apples. The import has an American engine loaded with foolish over regulated emissions, and an American made?? truck with a friggin fiat motor. It's like looking at a chev impala and one of those toyota, hunday, or kia models. Without a badge they all look like a football going down the road, and when someone is driving one of those things it looks like a monkey f-ing a football. Where's the Love! Right here!! This is an Impala, not mistaken for a ford, vw, Mercedes, kia, hunday, ETC.
63 Impala SS.jpg


63 Impala SS.jpg
 
Take the badging off and it's apples and apples. The import has an American engine loaded with foolish over regulated emissions, and an American made?? truck with a friggin fiat motor. It's like looking at a chev impala and one of those toyota, hunday, or kia models. Without a badge they all look like a football going down the road, and when someone is driving one of those things it looks like a monkey f-ing a football. Where's the Love! Right here!! This is an Impala, not mistaken for a ford, vw, Mercedes, kia, hunday, ETC.
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I agree, the high point for Detroit automotive styling was somewhere in the late 1960s, But they are not making those cars anymore. There are some very nicely styled new cars available tho.. Just have to look hard. One of my race buddies bought a new Challenger RT, 5.7 6 speed car, it is much quicker than any factory 68-69-70 GTO, GTX or SS 396. AND will get over 28MPG on a long freeway drive,The new GM FORD and MOPAR V-8s will run 200,000 miles trouble free, try that with that beautiful SS 1963 Impala. I know that my 1965 Impala needed to be overhauled by 60,000 miles, needed bore,pistons,cam etc.
 
Hell one of those 1/4 panels is equal to all the metal that goes into one of those rams total sheet metal weight.

Agreed CH its all about aerodynamics there is only so many ways to make air flow over the body smoothly, and that relates to MPG. In your example of the chevy my Dad had a 63 impala it in its day was loaded with smog equipment. Same with my 66 Malibu 327cid 275hp had a smog pump and a suck quadra-junk carburetor with a Half *** 2 speed powerslide trans. The total weight of which was 3300 pounds. I being one not to believe in conformance took the smog pump off put FI heads on it for some bigger valves so it could do some better breathing thru a Holly carb along with the Corvette alum high rise manifold that mixed 102 octane Chevron Custom Supreme (white pump) gas and air so the HEI dist, could put spark to it with a better Chevy lump-stick and Rhoads lifters that exited the MASSIVE AMOUNT of sulfur dioxide out into the atmosphere thru the Hooker headers so thick that the air could be seen your lungs would only be able to get half full before you puked your guts out, but my 327 chevy now put out 425 hp thru the Art Carr built 2 speed trans that would hold low to 75 mph with 308 gears in the rear, the balanced motor cranking in the 9K range screaming to be sifted into second gear by some knot head kid seeking adventure on the 91 Freeway East bound and Knott Boulevard that could NOT GO FAST ENOUGH!!! with a pegged speedo at 120 MPH and still picking up speed YAAAAAAAA!!! those days are pretty much GONE


Gas was $.25 a gallon (Chevron Custom was not cheap!!) the Parts for the build were mostly out of Hwy 39 (Beach Blvd) Wrecking yard that a buddy in schools Dad owned. The kid could work on stuff cause it was pretty straight forward (no computer crap) the trans was $150.00 in parts and a couple of six-packs worth of wrench time in my Dad's garage, the head work was done at school auto shop, balance was done by Speedshops in Buena Park. And if drove like a Caucasian ( which was RARELY done) got 21 MPG!!!


Those days are for ever gone. So just my thought, it sure feels good to breath and not see the air its funny that the air don't have a SMELL to it my eyes don't burn, and it don't taste like BURNT CHEVRON CUSTOM SUPREME!!! while im driving down the hwy in an 8,000 lbs DODGE truck that can go just as fast ??? and get better mileage doing it :eek:
 
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