I am going to relegate my Dakota to being a ranch truck, literally. I'll drop the insurance, lisc, and registratioin and restrict it to driving on my property. ...and then I get to take my wife's advice and buy a new truck. (Note: I'm keeping the 1 ton dually diesel Dodge but not using it for day to day off road ranch use or casual errands.)

I know I am asking how high is up and how long is a roll of string but... Is there a better 1/2 ton truck than a Ford F-150? My prelim investigation says the cost of ownership of the F-150 should not be particularly higher than a new Dakota or any of the smaller "inports." Even the Dodge dealer I talked to agreed that I could buy a 1/2 ton Dodge for about the same or less $ than a Dakota and that the mileage of a small V-8 would likely be as good as many of the V-6 engines.

What about the 4x4 components? What about the tranny? Is the Ford auto tranny reliable or should I suffer the indignity of a stick to get reliability. I don't think gas mileage difference between the stick and auto is significant. Unless the auto is a known maint problem I favor the auto. The only real LUXURY I need (besides the auto tranny if you count that as a luxury) is air conditioning.

My idea of a super duper pickup is a 4x4 F-150 with the Mercedes diesel used in the Dodge van. Oh well...

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]