| From | Message |
TotalKaos
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/21/2002
16:08:23
|
 Subject: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Hey am I the only lucky guy with a 4.7 Dakota? I was reading through Consumer Reports last night and was surprised to see that they gave the Dakota a terrible rating in reliability.(hmmmm) My truck has 35K on it, I drive it pretty damn hard and have no complaints. About the only thing I have noticed on mine is that I get a little bit of brake pulse under braking. Where are they getting this info from?? Or maybe you Dodge techs can fill the rest of us in..Later!!!
|
Anthony G
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/21/2002
16:23:29
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Who Knows, maybe Chrysler didn't want to give Consumer Reports a test vehicle or any kind incentive from them to give a good rating.
Almost everything these day are bias or revolving around making money. Do you think they really care about us or about making money.
It's almost like the saying, if you want the job done right, do it yourself. In this case, who cares what they say, it's what you know that counts.
|
Demon-Xanth
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/21/2002
16:30:44
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Consumer Reports get an F in reliability. They actually compared a V6 Camero and V8 Firebird once in a head to head test, you'd be suprized which ratings varied. Also, I seem to remember the Eagle Talon and Mitsubishi Eclipse having some massively different ratings when any idiot knows that they're the same car.
|
xplikt
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/21/2002
16:56:03
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
If you go to MSN's CarPoint or Edmunds, you will see the Dakota is number one and the Tacoma a close second -- how it should be.
|
Hersbird
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/21/2002
18:15:18
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Consumer reports doesn't do any testing of the cars to get those reliability ratings, they do not ask for any shops repair records, they don't do anything scientific to determine how reliable a car is. What they do is send out surveys to subscribers. They make no effort to verify validity of the "reports" sent back not even so far as to determine if the person actually has owned the car they did the report on! Now a company like JD Powers does actually go by actual repair records and then compare those results to the number of regestered cars of that model on the road to come up with what is above or below average. Low and behold the Dakota comes up #1 there in quality. Consumer Reports is just like a little club of import car buyers, who keep subscribing because by sending in stellar "reports" of their Toyota, while bad-mouthing the neighbor's Dodge, helps them justify the extra $4000 they spent.
|
Solas
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/21/2002
18:59:04
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
I agree. CS sucks and it is for losers. MSNcars.com is a much better feedback from real owners.
|
jj
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/21/2002
21:46:09
|  RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
hersbird you hit the nail on the head! those yuppies who suscribe to cr and buy their little toy`s,then glorify it in their yearly questionare. I always wondered why cr always praise all jap cars and loath USA. now i know,jj
|
bjlindsey
*GenIII*
2/22/2002
03:57:58
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Cuz they buy Jap car stock. Just like any other survey..the whiners chime in while the rest of us just tell our friends how much we love our Daks...plain and simple!
01 QC 4x4 5.9L 3.92 LSD
K&N clone, Clear Corners, Carbon Fiber Tails, Aluminum Billet 3rd Brake Light Cover, Bug Guard
www.FreeGasForYou.com
|
jesse
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/22/2002
16:16:44
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Just look and see what brand vehicle has the most adds in the magazine. That is who is paying the bills that month, and who will get the best ratings.
|
Chris W
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/23/2002
22:48:51
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Anybody who really wants to know how unreliable the new Dodge dakotas are need only spend time on this fine site. It seems all everyone does is either complain about something screwing up, or brag about the the compact import car they just "raced" .
I also have noted a trend. It seems that most by a large margin of the complainers have newer Gen 3 trucks. Could It be possible that Dodge quality is getting worse?
A co-worker of mine has a newstyle Ram and its on its second trip to the dealer for warranty work. Last time they kept it almost a week.
I hope my 95 goes for a long time because the stuff being built these days just doesnt seem to hold up.
|
sandman
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/24/2002
14:30:59
|  RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Well I have to laugh at all the bad mouthing of consumer reports! It is funny. They have been around quite a long time and do test things. They do also depend on their readers for input. I am just glad that we can all agree to disagree on some things! The only reason we have American (badged) vechiles that are not piles of crap is due to Import (badged) competition. If not for Japanesse and German cars we would still have alot of cars that are DOA at the dealership right off the truck! If you want to see why so many American cars get a low rateing do me a favor. I would like you to go to www.alldata.com. Check out the 1998 or 1999 Chevy( do not remember which) Malibu. It has 4 pages of TSB's. This is why they get a bad reputation. I have a friend that has one. Luckily he bought the extended warranty. He can not go 5,000 miles with out something breaking. His Intake manifold gaskets have been replaced 6 times under warranty. It is constantly leaking coolant. The No.3 journal has a pronounced knock and it is not considered a durablity issue by the dealer. I have not had any problem that I could not fix on my own so far. I have only had one recall on my Dakota 2001 QC 4x4 4.7. That was for the seatbelt anchor bolts.
|
sandman
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/24/2002
14:32:12
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Well I have to laugh at all the bad mouthing of consumer reports! It is funny. They have been around quite a long time and do test things. They do also depend on their readers for input. I am just glad that we can all agree to disagree on some things! The only reason we have American (badged) vechiles that are not piles of crap is due to Import (badged) competition. If not for Japanesse and German cars we would still have alot of cars that are DOA at the dealership right off the truck! If you want to see why so many American cars get a low rateing do me a favor. I would like you to go to www.alldata.com. Check out the 1998 or 1999 Chevy( do not remember which) Malibu. It has 4 pages of TSB's. This is why they get a bad reputation. I have a friend that has one. Luckily he bought the extended warranty. He can not go 5,000 miles with out something breaking. His Intake manifold gaskets have been replaced 6 times under warranty. It is constantly leaking coolant. The No.3 journal has a pronounced knock and it is not considered a durablity issue by the dealer. I have not had any problem that I could not fix on my own so far. I have only had one recall on my Dakota 2001 QC 4x4 4.7. That was for the seatbelt anchor bolts.
|
Hersbird
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/24/2002
19:53:03
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
What does transparent quality of a Honda have to do with Consumer reports reliability. They do test cars, but not the durability of cars. For their used car reliability reports they do not get any verified repair records they only use the reader surveys.
At one point the cars from Japan were complete pieces of junk, a real joke compared to an americian car. They really had to improve their quality to compete with the US. Then while they were doing that the US really started slipping. The government was ramming new regulations down their throats so fast its a wonder they could still produce the kind of cars US buyers really wanted.
So fair enoough the imports did exceed the quality of the US models. This trend has evened out. Now that imports are making cars more like what the US wants (powerful, big, heavy, automatic transmissions) they are having the same porblems the US cars have finally gotten over 5 years ago. And if you do get slightly better quality is it really worth the extra money you spend for it. Neons used to have problems with head gasket failure, it just developed an oil leak that didn't disable the car. It could be fixed anywhere for $350. The Honda accord in the same years had just as common a failure with the distributer. When it failed it disabled the car with no warning, and the part alone cost $350. Sure a head gasket failure sounds worse but in this case at least it got you hmoe at the end of the day. The new Honda Odyssey is another great example. Honda owners will say they bought thier Odyseey because they were afraid of the Chrysler vans transmission problems. It's sort of ironic that the now that the Honda makes a powerful, large, minivan like the Chrysler they are crapping the transmissions in record time and more often then compared to the Chrysler. At least so far they are all happening well under warrenty! Is the next owner really gonna want one of these with 75,000 miles on it and no warrenty when the transmission costs upwards of $3000 to have done down at the Honda Dealer? Sure it doesn't happen to all Honda vans, but then again all chrysler vans don't fail either (personally our family has ran up 500,000 miles in chrysler vans without a transmission failure). Bottom line, overall, most cars today have similar reliability. So cars are built with better parts but those parts cost more. It's hard to compare a $50,000 mercedes to a $30,000 chrysler when they offer the same comfort and performance and all the $20,000 buys you is reliability.
PS, nobody ever said Chevy had good quality compared to the Dodge!
|
xplikt
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/24/2002
20:48:12
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
If you are reading and happen to be a passer by, do not mind Chris W, he is just the neighboorhood grump.
|
Chris W
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/25/2002
11:41:24
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
I'm flattered. Really!
And Hersbird, whats that about transparent Honda quality? I'm sure you meant APPARENT Honda quality.
|
Hersbird
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/25/2002
12:14:44
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
I'll just let my Honda comment stand on the evidence shown above. The point is how hard was it for Honda and Toyota to make a reliable car out of a 70 HP, manual transmission, 2500 pound car while Dodge had for ever been concentrating on making waht americians wanted, big heavy V-8 cruisers. It was the government that stepped in and mandated what americians really wanted econocrapboxes like Toyota and Honda were already making. I don't think consumers really wanted those type of cars, they were just scared by talk of oil running out by the year 2000 (what year is it now?) and CAFE and emission regulations were just coming online forcing the US automakers to make a certain percent of their sales into these kind of cars weather their buyers wanted them or not. Thinking about it I guess you could call it apparent Honda quality as things are not always as they appear, and it is the unquestioning publics opnion that Honda has good qulaity, so apparent does fit. It's just that transparent is a better word as with a closer look you can see through the hype.
|
Chris W
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
2/25/2002
12:32:40
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Do you always type with a dictionary by youre side? Just kidding.
You have some fair points, and make a convincing argument. I will say that I think the Japanese are tredding in unfamiliar waters at this point in time. But how long do you think it will take before they start to nail down this new market they are tapping?
My point is the American car industry got slack for a while and the Japanese recognized a weakness and pounced on it. All the more reason for us to insist on a good work ethic, and take pride in our products, and not just treat them like a weekly paycheck.
We build the best of everything else. Our weapons and technology, industrial, medical science, the superlatives are many. We should be building the BEST vehicles in the world.
Lets say for the sake of argument that our cars are 100% equal to the imports across the board. It may sound good, but not good enough for me. We should be building the best.
Why cant we?
|
d denney
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
3/12/2002
07:49:30
|  RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
My 00 dak has 40000 thausand on it and not one problem, CS sux my ass
|
Todd Bouton
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
3/12/2002
12:22:02
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Americna Car companies only do what they need to get by, regarding design and planned obselescence(sp?). If they make a car that will last forever, too cost prohibitive and no repeat customers. Market trends and competition do drive the industry to an extent though.
|
Hersbird
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
3/12/2002
20:28:26
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
Yeh, I really see a ton of 75 civics on the road still, NOT! I do see quite a few US cars from 75 on the raod still and it's certainly not because they are stylin'!
|
Chris W
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
3/12/2002
21:32:17
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
That is because they sold 10 times as many domestics and no one thought about buying the imports like folks do now. Besides, you ever try to find parts for a late 70's Civic?
Nowadays you see the imports holding up better over the years than the Domestics.
|
Hersbird
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
3/12/2002
23:14:03
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
By nowadays what year exactly do you mean? I think the only stuff in the junkyards over the last 10 years is there only due to accidents, weather it foriegn or domestic. So go back 20 years to 1980 and what do you see still on the road? this was really a dismal time for dosmestics with invented feul crisis, and quickly changing government regualtions, and yet still there are plenty of supposedly "poor" domestics doing fine. 5 years eariler and you are back to my original point of 1975. I still stand by the fact that the only reason imports used to hold up better then domestic counterparts was they were built with limited options, underpowered, lightweight, and maunual transmission cars. Anthing that is an apples to apples (same features, power, price) comparison shows no real advantage in durability for a import.
|
Chris W
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
3/15/2002
09:50:18
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
So would you say that the Domestics are superior to the Imports now?
|
Todd W
Dodge Dakota
JOIN HERE
3/15/2002
13:05:40
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
I think the reason you see more GenIII people complaining on here is simple, there are more GenIII owners than not. GenII trucks are what, approaching 10 years old now? If said 10 year old truck hasn't had major mechanical problems outside of the normal 10-year wear, and has been taken care off, I don't see them haveing a lot of issues to report. A lot of 'issues' are probally just milage related anyway.
The GenIII trucks, however, don't have a lot of miles on them. An interesting trend I noticed is that, while there are a few who have problems right off the lot (such as the guy who had a big dent in the door. Cripes people, look at the truck before taking delivery. As soon as you sign it off and drive off the lot with it, it gets harder and harder to get them to fix it!), most have trouble -after- doing something. Like installing an upgrade, or simply not knowing -jack- about how to properly maintain said vehical.
I keep seeing posts where people have rough idles so they replace some part that probally had nothing to do with the problem, then wonder why it's not fixed...
|
swampdak
Gen III
3/16/2002
08:37:51
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
I think you have to look closely at what CR is actually saying.If you compare a 98 2WD Tacoma for transmissions they say 2% or less owners reported problems.For a 98 Dakota 2WD they say 2% to 5% owners reporting problems.So 2 people out of a 100 will have problems with a Taco and 5 people out of a 100 will have probs with a Dak.So yes the Toyota is more dependable, but your odds of having NO PROBLEMS are good with both trucks.CR also rates Toyota dealer satisfaction AT 62% and Dodge at67%,neither is very good but where is the Toyota advantage? Also you are going to pay a lot more for that extra 3% dependability, no 0% interest,plus I find Toyota dealers a (BUY THE TRUCK OR SCREW OFF)type. If you happen to be a Toyota owner who falls in that 2% the cost of parts will turn your hair white really fast.And CR also is the first to admit that Dodge Ford and Chev are rapidly catching up in the reliability game.And the bottom line is a Dakota is a much better looking truck than a Tacoma.My 2 cents.
Y2K CC 4.7 AUTO 4X4 3.55 TRAC-LOK SLT K&N 16.35/82.41
|
bjlindsey
*GenIII*
3/16/2002
12:39:58
| RE: Consumer Reports!
IP: Logged
Message:
I'll double that and raise it to 4 cents!!!!
01 QC 4x4 5.9L 3.92 LSD
K&N clone, Clear Corners, Carbon Fiber Tails, Aluminum Billet 3rd Brake Light Cover, Bug Guard
www.FreeGasForYou.com
|
| | P 1 |
|
Post a reply to this message:
Username Registration: Optional
All visitors are allowed to post messages
|
