Ram Working On Mid-Size Pickup

you know... looking back, that final Dakota wasn't too bad looking. I wonder what they go for used. 

Sales must of fallen off w/ the 3rd gen..I never see them around, either here or in Arizona...still see a rusty 2nd gen around here once in a while.

RAM does need a midsize pickup.  They should reconsider NOT using the Gladiator platform, unless there is a serious cost issue.

18 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

Sales must of fallen off w/ the 3rd gen..I never see them around, either here or in Arizona...still see a rusty 2nd gen around here once in a while.

The third gen was really ugly until it got a refresh (pictured above) but that wasn't enough to save it. 

Ran needs a midsize pickup and I could see room for a Promaster City based small truck.

29 minutes ago, Drew Dowdell said:

The third gen was really ugly until it got a refresh (pictured above) but that wasn't enough to save it. 

Yes, it was as ugly as the 2nd gen Durango.. 

To get something out quickly, they could just add a bed to the ProMaster cab and chassis version.    That would give them the only cab-forward pickup in the US market..

Best looking Dakota was the 98 gen which matched the look of First Gen Durango.

The current Durango is a WinWin so just copy it and go or like Robert says us a Promaster City cab/chassis version and build a FWD pickup which would work too.

2 minutes ago, dfelt said:

Best looking Dakota was the 98 gen which matched the look of First Gen Durango.

The current Durango is a WinWin so just copy it and go or like Robert says us a Promaster City cab/chassis version and build a FWD pickup which would work too.

The current Durango is a good looker, but I think it's on its way out. 

2022 is WAY late to market, but better late than never I guess.  They were slow to respond when the S-10 and Ranger revolutionized the pickup market with domestic compacts back in the early 80's, too.  I will have to read up on the first-gen Dakota's development to confirm that its platform was scratch-built and not simply a scaled down D100, but I think any new Ram midsize would need to match the competition in size, not exceed them.

9 minutes ago, ocnblu said:

 I will have to read up on the first-gen Dakota's development to confirm that its platform was scratch-built and not simply a scaled down D100, but I think any new Ram midsize would need to match the competition in size, not exceed them.

The D-100 was pretty old by the mid 80s, but it sounds like they did use some components..per Wikipedia--To keep investment low, many components were shared with existing Chrysler products and the manufacturing plant was shared with the full-sized Dodge D-Model.

Wasn't the 3.9 V6 a 318 w/ two fewer cylinders?

I remember reading this article on Allpar once before, not a lot of detail, but an ok overview on the 1st gen

https://www.allpar.com/trucks/dakota-1987.html

2 minutes ago, Robert Hall said:

Wasn't the 3.7 V6 a 318 w/ two fewer cylinders?

I don't remember reading that, but it is possible.  Would be cool to see this new truck powered by the rumored inline six FCA is working on, and a diesel of some sort of extraction.

Coincidentally, I wrote an estimate on an '05 Dakota today (in clean condition) and scheduled the work.

I was a 1992, 1995, and 1998 Dakota buyer/owner, the first with the 3.9L V6, and those that followed having the 5.2L V8. I distinctly remember reading reports that the 3.9L's origin was a 5.2L (318ci) V8 block sans two cylinders.

It's a bit amazing to learn that Dodge got so far behind Chevy and Ford with development of its own new mid-size pick-up.  I believe that the new Ranger is going to be a solid seller in the truck class, so a 2022 debut of the new Dodge/Ram midsize is gonna leave it playing a big-time catch-up game, especially if the Colorado/Canyon gets a refresh in that time.

57 minutes ago, garnermike said:

I was a 1992, 1995, and 1998 Dakota buyer/owner, the first with the 3.9L V6, and those that followed having the 5.2L V8. I distinctly remember reading reports that the 3.9L's origin was a 5.2L (318ci) V8 block sans two cylinders.

It's a bit amazing to learn that Dodge got so far behind Chevy and Ford with development of its own new mid-size pick-up.  I believe that the new Ranger is going to be a solid seller in the truck class, so a 2022 debut of the new Dodge/Ram midsize is gonna leave it playing a big-time catch-up game, especially if the Colorado/Canyon gets a refresh in that time.

I believe that those two are going to get a refresh very soon.