Dakota Quad-Cab vs. F150 Crew-Cab (early 2000's)

If you needed a DD four-door pickup (3 kids plus needing a bed for home improvement: mulch, plywood etc, no towing) which would you choose?

Engine options included. Preferably V8. Let's say 2003 so the 4.7 is an option.

What age are the children, and what's the car seat situation (if any)?

The engine I would trust the most would be the 5.9 Magnum. Otherwise I don't have any experience with those gen trucks(I've had the previous F-150 and next Dakota in the family fleet) to make the call.

I would also look at bed size. I imagine the F-150 would be wider, I know on the 3rd gen Dak there is less than 48" between wheel wells, so no laying the plywood flat. Looking for bed numbers, the only one I found was the Dak short box was 5'3".

Also consider width if the 3 kids regularly are all in back.

Kids are boy 11, girls 8 and 3. Cars Seat for the 3y/o, booster for the 8 y/o.

I've been through this thought process many times and it makes me want to keep my '95 Supercab F150 Flareside!

The internet says that the PN96 trucks will spit their spark plugs through the hood. It must be true, even though it never happened to me in all the years I owned those trucks.

Neither. I'd buy a Silverado.

If you go with the Dakota, you will have to get the AWD 4.7L combo if you want 4 doors, and those came later with a mid-cycle refresh around 2001. A friend recently had one, who came from a 4.7L 2-door short bed with a stick, and he was underwhelmed. Also, his had its share of issues, mostly driveline and suspension based though. Like all the other small trucks, they will eat ball joints, bushings, and shocks.

Also, look out for RUST. These trucks rust with a force. Look for major rust on frame rails, suspension bits, the core support, and especially the brake lines. I had a scary experience last summer with a blown brake line on my 1997 Dakota, and that resulted in me fabricating and replacing 99% of the brake lines, including one that had previously been replaced that rusted again.

The Dodges of that vintage seem to have serious transmission issues -- I'd probably buy the Ford, spark plugs and all. It's also an actual full-size pickup, vs a the blown-up compact of the Dakota.

F150 supercrew was on my list of trucks to buy, but I wound up with a Silverado diesel instead somehow... :)

I keep hearing about these transmission issues from here, but go anywhere else, I don't hear anything about dakota auto trans issues- no more than chevy or ford. Also, the 2000-2004 AWD option is actually pretty rare from what I can tell- most I see in my searches are true 4wd. Perhaps that 4.7 manual I'm seeing on craigslist is the right call regardless.

I'm looking too- I like the Dakota for being the "right" size without a toy engine, although the part of me that doesn't like working on things I'm not passionate about is telling me to just wait and save up for a new truck of some sort that gets decent MPGs, which apparently nothing other than a 22r Toyota gets, and certainly nothing with a true 4 door that can fit real people in the back.

In reply to Teh E36 M3:

One of my favorite things about my Dakota is the size. It's PERFECT! It's not too small, but a lot smaller than the locomotives they call half ton trucks these days. I have an extend cab, and it's still easy to park and has plenty of interior room and a 6.5ft bed. My only wish is that it had a V8, because there is really no gas mileage penalty between any of the V8's and the V6.

My brother in law has the crew cab Dakota with the 3.7L V6 and 4WD. His transmission blew a few years ago. He doesn't tow anything with it, it's his daily driver. I have no idea how it was maintained or used by the driver(s) before him, and I'm not sure if he used the tow/haul mode if he was carrying a load (i.e. mulch, rocks, etc). Either way, his transmission did go, and he paid over $3+k for a new one (installed).

I like the size of his truck, but with children the ages you listed (especially with car seats/boosters involved), I think you'll be better-served with a full size truck. Ours has 3 car seats across the back and has plenty of room for my children (7.5, 6, and 3).

My recommendation would be to buy the one that seems to be maintained the best and with the least amount of rust. I was in a similar situation a few years ago, and I ended up with an '06 Dodge Quad Cab. I've been happy so far with it, the only thing I've had to do on it was replace a water pump. The oil pan is rusting and will have to be replaced in the near future. Keep in mind I bought the truck with high mileage (135k at the time, I think it was only 4 years old), but it looked like it had been maintained well. Dodges have a reputation for rust, but it had zero body rust and less surface rust underneath than the comparable Ford and Chevy trucks I was looking at. The benefit of the Dodge for me was that the quad cab was available in a base (ST) model (manual door locks, manual windows, rubber mat for a floor), so the price was cheaper. It had all of the options I really wanted (4WD, Hemi, A/C, and four-wheel ABS).

I had an 02 Dakota with 80k and a 99 F150 with 160k.

I would not own another Dakota if you paid me. Cheap, rattly plastic interior, terrible upholstery, weak engine, weak transmission, rust bucket, and generally a terrible overall vehicle.

I would gladly buy another F150. Engine is wimpy, but the tranny will last forever. Spark plugs are not an issue until you get to the awful V10 in the HD trucks. Avoid the coil-on-plug engines as they can be annoying, but I would still rather have ANY F150 long before I'd do another Dakota. Build quality, fit and finish, quality of materials... all over the dodge.

A buddy had a Dakota of that vintage w/the V8. Sold it for a full size Dodge of similar and got better gas mileage (mostly due to dropping the 4WD and the better transmission gearing). I wouldn't bother with a Dakota as they aren't much smaller than a fullsize and are slightly less reliable it seems.

If my '95 OBS F150 was a Crew and not a SuperCab I'd drive it until the cows come home (what??). It's getting a little tougher with youth football gear to fit back there.

I have a 2002 Dodge Dakota Quad with 4.7 V8 4wd. Overall it is fairly decent. Mine is a low mileage vintage at just 90k miles. It fits everything and anything, 4 adults comfortably, with a bunch of stuff in the bed. It is easy to park and doesn't drive like a bus. The MPG so far is 14MPG I mainly drive on the street. I think I got 16MPG on the highway. It has all the same rust that you would find with a ford in the Wheel wells. Maintenance would be a big plus no matter what vehicle you pursue, the tucks that I have bought in the past are usually fairly tired and beat up.

curtis73 wrote: I had an 02 Dakota with 80k and a 99 F150 with 160k. I would not own another Dakota if you paid me. Cheap, rattly plastic interior, terrible upholstery, weak engine, weak transmission, rust bucket, and generally a terrible overall vehicle. I would gladly buy another F150. Engine is wimpy, but the tranny will last forever. Spark plugs are not an issue until you get to the awful V10 in the HD trucks. Avoid the coil-on-plug engines as they can be annoying, but I would still rather have ANY F150 long before I'd do another Dakota. Build quality, fit and finish, quality of materials... all over the dodge.

I would like to also state for the record that I just about agree with everything here, and I own a Dakota. The size is the best thing going for it.

The only reason I really bought mine was the fact that it ran and drove, I knew the previous owner had maintained it (I know him personally), and it was only $500. So far, I've probably put another $300-400 in it in the past couple of years, doing the brake stuff I mentioned including the calipers and everything attached to the rear axle, replacing the rusted out bumpers, replacing the upper and lower ball joints and end links,and general maintenance. It still needs a set of tires, shocks, and rust repair.

If there was a similar Ford F150 around when I bought mine, I would have probably gone Ford. I would choose a Chevy/GMC over either one though.

I've added two pictures of our Ram Quad cab to my garage. The first shows three car seats across the back seat (and all are huge car seats), and the second shows rear leg room with the rear seat back almost all the way.

The 4.7L is a gawd awful, horrible little motor.

So between the 2 choices, Ford. If I was making the decision, GM. I'd rather a 98 extended cab 4 door chebby/gm than either of those two.

If you are looking at an early 2000s....go GMC....the 5.3 is a better engine than anything Ferd or Dodge had to offer.

Well that sucks. Wind=not in sails any more. I also like the way they look... right size, etc. Oh well. Really don't like the look of the early '00's F150's. Time to save up for full-size or colorado diesel.

was thinking this:
http://lancaster.craigslist.org/ctd/4588610209.html

with this:

Would make a good coupling. Guy wants $2500 for truck, but salvage title. $1500?

I was truck shopping earlier this year and ended up with a '01 Dakota quad cab, 4.7 4wd. The truck has been pretty good to me, but I've only had it 6 months. I've used it to tow the LeMons car twice and was actually pretty impressed with how it did for such a small engine. That being said, some things about these suck. Body Control Modules (BCM)/Central Timer Module (CTM) go bad and can be expensive to replace. That'll keep your alarm and 4wd from working. I'm coming from VAGland, so I've been spoiled with VAG-Com for reading codes, and was quite annoyed at Mopar requiring the use of their proprietary scanners to get into the body modules.

The bed is also pretty short, but I'll trade an extra short bed for the shorter truck length and longer cab.

I was initially shopping for GM's. Specifically, 4.7 or 5.3, preferably 5spd, 4wd, short bed, but most of the trucks I found in my price range were beat to hell and way too rusty for me. If I found one that was as clean as my Dakota for a similar price, I would have picked that up instead.

On the Dodge pickup trucks make sure you check that you can loosen the lugnuts. It is common for the lugnuts to seize on these cars and depending on how bad it is,such an occurrence would necessitate either a bolt extractor, or more likely, a left handed drill bit plus a good dose of character building.

Ive got a fair amount of experience with both trucks as a tech and having both kinds in my circle of friends/family.

If you want 4 'normal' doors, i would buy the Dakota. If you can deal with a 4dr extended cab, i would buy a 4.2 Ford.

I would not buy an extended cab dakota for this use under any circumstance.

I would much rather own a 4dr dakota with any of the available motors than a 'real 4dr' ford which forces you to own a 4.6 or 5.4.

The 3.9/5.2/5.9 family in the dakotas have great reliability and ease of service but iffy trans. The 4.7 trans has better reliability but the motor is iffier. The ford 4.2/4r70 combo is fantastic imo and the extended cab is fine even for 6' adults until the lack of reclined seatback starts to wear on you (not an issue for children). The 4.2/auto f150 actually feels stronger than a 3.9 quad cab dakota, too, and probably gets better mpg.