Need some advice on a used truck I found.

scull20 · **Posted:** Sat May 23, 2009 11:48 am

Hey guys, I need some advice here. The trans on my brothers car went last month and I've been trying to find him a reliable form of transportation (other than me!) for a while now to no avail. He would prefer to have a pickup truck. I was searching on cars.com last night and found this 2005 Dakota SLT. Its got 50k miles, a 6 speed and has 4 wheel drive. What through me off is the asking price of $6,800. The blue book value on the truck is like $14000.

I made a call on the truck and they said it is still available and of course they want me to come in and look at it. The girl on the phone was not able to answer any of my detailed questions (probably because she pulled up the same sheet that I printed out and was looking at...) and she said she could not take pictures of the truck and email them to me.

I put the VIN in carfax and it said it found "9 reports" for that particular truck. The woman told me over the phone said that they provide a free carfax for the truck when you go in and look at it. I almost want to go and pay for the carfax myself and compare them when I go in to see if there is actually something wrong with it and they doctored the carfax up.

Through searching the cached pages on google I found that it was listed online back in mid April for $8995. Why hasn't someone else gone and snatched this truck up already...it really seems too good to be true. I also found that this particular dealership is one of the many that was recently rejected by Chrysler and will be set to close (Perhaps a reason for the price drop?).

I almost want to go look at it on Monday because I don't have to work, but I don't want to go in there and find out that there is like major damage on the drivers side that I can't see from the pictures.

Here is a link to the listing. Let me know what you guys think.

http://www.compassdodge.net/used-invent ... 9e51a9fbaa

Thanks,

-Ryan

Diggerfreek · **Posted:** Sat May 23, 2009 1:20 pm

well from the picture, it looks like it may need tires... best thing to do is go and take a look at it. Crawl around and giver a check. The warranty on it should be the 7/70

hollysprings · **Posted:** Sat May 23, 2009 9:17 pm

The worst I can think of is that it was returned to the dealer under the "lemon law". Get the VIN and look on the web or call some consumer protection office to find out how to look it up on the lemon registry.

Second worst is that it was in a major wreck and got repaired. If so, you should be able to get some details from the car-fax report.

Either way, if you and your brother are reasonably mechancially inclined, it could still be a good deal. I'm of the opinion that 90% of American drivers dont take decent care of their cars, and they don't pay attention to warning signs and odd noises and how the car "feels" - they just drive it until it stops and then they kick it. I bet most "lemons" could be fixed by a driver/mechanic who paid attention to the symptoms, and if you discount it $7000 then that could make it worth your while.

Still, don't pay asking price and don't act too quickly. Something is obviously wrong or it wouldn't have sat around so long and not sold. Check out that car fax (I don't think you need to buy your own, as long as the # of records matches what you get online in a free lookup), inspect it real good and, if all sems okay, pay $50-100 to get a mechanic to inspect it.

BTW, if the dealer was dropped by Chrysler, the primary selling pressure would be on new cars not on used cars - dealers never take back used cars anyway. But still, the overall pressure on their finances might make them anxious to sell anything to raise some cash.

scull20 · **Posted:** Sat May 23, 2009 11:00 pm

Well I found a free carfax that was on the cars.com ad. It was purchased as a fleet vehicle, during that time it hit a parked car, and was then repossessed and sold at auction. It's been on the lot since January 2009. I made a second call to the dealership and they basically wont tell me anything about the truck that I have not already been able to find out by looking at the sheet I printed out from the internet. The woman over the phone said there is ABSOLUTELY no way they can take anymore pictures of the truck...which is BS if you ask me, you can't tell me that nobody in that entire darn place has a digital camera.

I also did a search about the dealership. Needless to say I've yet to find a good report about them, everything I found was made in reference to accounts that occurred in the past year. Everything dealt with misleading ads, rude staff, not returning deposits....the list goes on. As of May 4th, 2009 the Better Business Bureau suspended their accreditation due to, "recent government action involving the business's customer relations which indicates a significant failure of the business to meet standards of conduct expected of a BBB member."

Heres the reason copied from the BBB's website:

"On March 25, 2009, the business entered into a Consent Order with the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, resolving alleged used car sales and advertising violations, with the Orange dealership agreeing not to falsify consumer credit ratings on loan applications in the future.

Compass Dodge will pay $50,000 in civil penalties and as reimbursement for the state's investigative and legal costs, under terms of the Consent Order between the parties. An additional $92,500 in civil penalties is suspended but will become due and immediately payable if Compass Dodge violates terms of the Consent Order during the next year.

The dealership's future business practices must conform to state laws and regulations related to used motor vehicle sales and advertising."

...considering all of this, and the fact that I'm going to have to drive about 45 min to a rather "sketchy" area...I think I'm going to pass and not waste my time. If they want to send me pictures of the truck, maybe I'll reconsider. They took my information down so I;m sure they'll be calling...maybe I can get someone to take some pictures.

Thanks for the help everyone,

-Ryan

Guest · **Posted:** Tue May 26, 2009 12:48 am

The 05-6 Dakotas had rear brake issues ITBJRC.

Other than that, they are solid. ThunderbirdJunkie would jump all over that truck and squeeze out his unmentionable fluids right this moment if it was a 2 wheeler. a bad-ass 4.7L 280 hp 6 speed beast the same color as his KJ? Thank you sir, may ThunderbirdJunkie have another!

That being said, on some of the 04-5 4.7s they did have some intake issues much like those of the GM 4.3s and Ford 4.6s.

Big effing deal, that is a bad-ass truck and if you do not go buy it ThunderbirdJunkie is tempted to buy it and rip out the front diff, hang the t-case from it under the KJ, and go do some sweet wheel hoppin burnouts

Guest · **Posted:** Tue May 26, 2009 1:02 am

BTW- that is a pickup with a manual trans. A tough sell. And a V8, while it probably gets better fuel economy than the 3.7 in the real world, is a big no-no in this current fuel economy fueled (pardon the pun) car market.

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Tue May 26, 2009 1:25 am

if it was a fleet vehicle that was repossessed - I'd expect it had no maintenance - especially oil changes, and the clutch is probably dead.
if the damage was repaired ( and the sequence doesn't sound like it)- probably - cheapest available parts.

HoosierJeeper · **Joined:** Sun Feb 15, 2009 8:23 am **Posts:** 1218

Dakotas are pretty good trucks....the only engine I'm not sure about is the 4.7 HO. The 3. (duh) is reliable, and many I know have a 4.7 in a Durango and have 100K+ with no issues. Dodgetalk.com is a great site for Dodges.

Good Luck!!!!!

Need some advice on a used truck I found.

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