What's so great about the Dodge Ram?

> My Toyota was stolen and I need to buy a new truck. So why should I buy a Dodge.....well, one reason, is they were running some very good prices on them. Toyota, thinks you should shell out your first born. So what are some other reason's? Need to be able to pull a 4000 LBS (loaded weight) trailer.

I never would have bought a Dodge. I like Chevys and know them well. I never intended to buy a pickup. But then just over a year ago my tow vehicle (an old cop car) started to die, and I needed to move, and the guy I was sharing a trailer with decided to sell all of his toys and move into a town home. So I needed a tow/cargo vehicle and he wanted a pile of cash for his share of the trailer. He also has this 2002 Ram 1500 4.7 4x4, so I asked if he was selling that to. He was.

I did a *lot* of research online, scouring lists like this, forums like dodgetalk, allpar, and others, and the NHTSA recall site. I only found three problems that cropped up:

The rear disks had a tendency to rip off the rear axle. A recall early in it's life fixed that for good.

On something less than 1 out of 50-ish of any recent Dodge truck that uses a corporate trak-lock rear differential, there is an assembly clip that will come loose and shred the diff. Hasn't been a problem for me, and simply servicing the diff will identify if the clip is there or not, and apparently it can be removed to prevent it coming loose later.

Lastly, the rack and pinion steering on the 1500's can blow out the seals on the ends and dump all the steering fluid. When that happens, the rack cannot be repaired and has to be replaced for $850. This is apparently very rare, and I think it's caused by people who hold the wheel again the stops while maneuvering these massive vehicles. Not a problem for me.

THAT'S IT! Those are the only problems I found. No engine problems, no chassis problems, no 4x4 problems, no electrical problems. Plus I had crawled all over this thing when I helped my friend upgrade the shocks, add step bars, and install trailer brakes and lights. I was impressed with what I saw.

I bought the truck with 55,000 miles in March 2006, and am just about to flip over 75,000 miles. That's a heap of miles in just over a year. I've also towed a 5000 pound rig with my race car on it a half dozen times, and towed my vehicles (including the now-dead cop-car) when I moved, up to about 6000 pounds without any problems. Granted, you have to flog the 4.7 pretty hard to pull that much weight, but it has never complained.

I only had one other weird problem where the dash lights quit on me. I eventually pulled the "panel" fuse to check it (it was fine), and when I put it back in the lights came back. Odd.

The handling of this truck is incredible. I drive a race car for fun, and usually prefer some kind of low-slung sports car with spine-smashing, rock-hard suspension on the street. The Dodge drives like a truck, but can out-handle any other truck I've ever driven. It's saved my ass a couple of times when I've had to throw it around to avoid some soccer-mom idiot yakking on her cellphone and turning into my traffic lane. More than once the Dodge has surprised me by taking all I could give it and remaining stable and under control.

So I never would have bought a truck, I never would have bought a quad cab, I never would have bought a 4.7 liter engine, and I never would have bought a Dodge. But circumstances conspired to make it the right vehicle at the right time, and my friend offered it to me for a fair price and threw in his share of the trailer for free. I've been extremely happy with it ever since. My only wishes are that it didn't get sh*tty gas mileage (it *is* a truck), and that it had a Cummins diesel!

Is Dodge the greatest truck in the world? Maybe, maybe not. It is better than Toyota? For the money, definitely. Is it better than Ford or Chevy? Anything is better than a Ford, IMHO. Chevy has made good stuff and crap over the years, but I think they are on the upswing now. Still, I don't think they beat the value and good looks of the Dodge. My next truck will be a Dodge too.