A post on allpar.com, has brought forth some very intresting news about the next generation of Dakota due out next year...

Just hung up with a friend of mine who is the owner of a big dealership in town, who was invited to the new car "sneak peak" Chrysler offered a week or so ago. I pressed him for Dakota info specifically, and his response was VERY good. His exact words were, "it is the best looking new vehicle coming out, out of the one's there!". He said it has the look of the Ram, with exagerated fender bulges, and a bigger grille than the current Dakota (it does not look anything like a Durango...thank goodness, as we both dislike the new Durango). The one he saw was a black club cab(with suicide doors), he said the tailights were normal (not the liberty/durango look), and the interior was vastly superior to current gen. He indicated he thought it was throttle by wire, and that no HEMI would be available at first.....but the engineers grinned when asked about the future. It has it's own frame, and does not share with the Durango. He was told by the engineers that the brake problem has been "fixed" on the new gen as well. After all, it has only taken 10 years to do that!!!! He also said the [filtered language] dana rear ends are now gone, and that American axle supplies the new units. Let's pray they are better than the old 9.25 units.

Alright, lets take a general look at what we know about the new 2005 Dakota.

* Regular Cab, Club Cab, & Quad Cab models

* Same Chassis as pervious one, w/ upgrades

* No HEMI at first, but a 4.7L HO "MAGNUM" V-8 found in the Grand Cherokee will be used (HEMI used for SRT-8 Dakota?)

* Club Cab models get suicide doors like pervious generation Ram's Quad Cab models

* Styling will be similar to the Durango in grille only, rest of the truck will look some where between Ram and Durango styles.

* Similar interior styling to the Durango

* 5-lug wheels... Can you now interchange Ram 1500 rims w/ Dakota?

redriderbob

You will see it, begining of Feburary, when it makes it's debut at the Chicago Auto Show!

redriderbob

Spyder, tough chance... it is just for Heavy Duty Rams and SRT-8 models on the LX platform! Sorry!

redriderbob

[QUOTE=4xFun]Cool!! I can't wait to see it at the Chicago auto show. Already got my tickets!!![/QUOTE]

you lucky basterd. you better get some sweet A$$ pics of it there, we are all counting on you.

Dodge should've done a special 1 year R/T with the 4.7HO, it's more power than the 5.9L was around 260hp, and they probably would have made some money off of that, charge a little more but hey well worth the performance gain, and most of all not having a R/T for the '04 model year was dumb.

Yea, I go to the auto show on Friday 2/6. Then, on Saturday I head on over to Rosemont, IL for the international motorcycle show.

So, I'll be taking a lot of pics and posting them

Well according to http://www.chicagoautoshow.com, it the show Feb. 6 - 15!

redriderbob

when is the LA auto show I can drive 6-8hrs. to go see some cool stuff. I live in Phx, AZ, I wish they had a show after the one in Chicago.

the LA Auto Show isn't till next Demember, second to last week of December!

redriderbob

I'll tell you what I know so far. The 6.1L HEMI V-8 will NOT I repeat NOT be in the Dodge Dakota lineup! But, the 6.1L HEMI V-8 (codenamed 440) is going to show up on SRT-8 Charger models (supposely) and will make a debut in the Ram Heavy Duty lineup. Now this motor will actually be a HEMI, not a HEMI "MAGNUM" motor like the 5.7L I heard from vast sources. The codename 440 is not cubic inch displacement, since that would be about 368ci. But 440 is the power it has. We are still not sure if it is a horsepower or torque rating yet! But as you can see the 6.1L is far superior than the 5.7L. Look at the intake for example.

redriderbob