Tell me about your Dakota

[MazdaMatt]

I'm probably the only guy on this site that might ditch his econobox and buy a pickup truck. I feel dirty. Long story short, I have developed the need to haul and tow and I can't afford two vehicles. Period.

I have explored my options and the minimum "utility" that I can accept is a dodge dakota V6 - hopefully manual.

For anybody that drives one of these - whether you hypermile it or not, mod it or not, please tell me your driving style, mods and FE.

I do a daily commute of 50km over 90% 80km/h roads. I need to make some judgement about what kind of economy I can expect and compare it to my current situation and crunch the numbers.

Please, no discussion about other vehicles or outrageous expensive mods I could do, just your experiences and hard numbers, please.

THANKS!

[Blue07CivicEX]

Well, you could start with a tauneau cover, when I was driving a pickup, without hypermiling i was getting around 24mpg highway doing 75-80 (4 cyl engine) I never drove it without the cover so I can't give you an ABA but it seemed to run pretty well with it on. Maybe somebody else that drove a pickup for more then a year can add some solid numbers.

[MazdaMatt]

Thanks. That's pretty solid mileage, but a 4-banger will do that. I'm guessing you mean 75-80mph.

I am less interested in what I could do to a truck and more interested in what people who have driven dakotas are getting for mileage numbers - and what THEY have done to their trucks and how they drive them.

[TestDrive]

If they can say, you probably want to know:

which body style (regular cab, club cab, quad cab)?
short or long wheel base?
and especially which rear end.?

2003 Dodge Dakota Standard Equipment and Specs
Powertrain
Axle ratio 3.21
Axle ratio : 3.55 Optional
Axle ratio : 3.92 Optional

[Blue07CivicEX]

Well, to give you a little better data, there are 3 dakota's with data in the EM garage, and they average 15.9mpg across the 3 of them. I think there were 6 or 7 total but only one was recently active that I saw. You can search dakota and PM some of the owners and see if they can get back to you.

[bikin' Ed]

is an'06, quad cab, 3.7L V-6, automatic, 2wd with a limited slip diff.

I have added a bed cover, full upper grille block, and somewhat WAI. The tires are inflated to 50 psi.

Winter mpg is about 22.5 hwy and 19 city. Summer mpg is about 24 hwy and 20.5 mpg.

That said, I'm sure there is more to be had, especially if I had a manual trans, and more time to play with it. Hope that helps.....Ed

[bikin' Ed]

Another thought is the Chevy/GMC with the V-8 that cuts out cyls. under low or no load. It's getting better mileage tham my Dakota, right out of the box.

[Frank Lee]

My impression of Dakotas is that you get all the size and capability compromises of a smaller truck with all the fuel consumption of a full-size truck. Great, huh?

[bikin' Ed]

I just did a round trip long weekend to Chicago (806 miles round trip). I carried 5 people, luggage and golf clubs thru about 700 miles of highway and 100 miles of city traffic and averaged 24.2 mpg.

Seems more like the best of both worlds to me

[MazdaMatt]

From what I've been hearing, the thing maxes out (without extraineous effort) at around 24mpg and I figure that my driving habbits (routes and techniques) will net me about that or slightly lower.

Thanks for all that have added in their 2c, but please, more responses would be great.