Recently, it came to time to do some much needed maintenance on my wife's 2007 Dodge Dakota. I was very disappointed that the shocks seemed to start going in the mid 20,000 mile range. The ride quality was diminishing, and front end "clunking" was getting louder. The truck also was due for brakes and tires, both of which had served admirably for 59,000 miles. I had already received a set of 4 Rancho shocks from Summit Racing Equipment, and they sat on my work bench, awaiting installation. Having already dropped $300 for the shocks, and looking at probably another $800 minimum for brakes and tires, I decided to weigh our options.
My wife was never a fan of the white her Dakota was. At the time, it was what was on the lot, and the best deal her dad could find at the time. When our lease was up, there really were not affordable options, so we took on the note to buy the Dakota. While our Dakota served us well, I had much higher expectations for a truck, and the Dakota armed with a V6 would not have been up to the task.
I called my friend, a salesman at a local Dodge dealership, and wanted to look at our options. At one point, we even considered buying used, if it would save us money and get into what we wanted. As luck would have it, we found the perfect match in a 2011 Ram SLT Hemi, most importantly, in red...my wife's first choice. It also came with the mandatory to me, hemi,pumping out 390 hp and 407 ft/lbs of torque. Also, nearly as important, we got the towing package. I have got to a point where from time to time, my Camaro needs trailered. In the future, I'd like to get back into drag racing somewhat regularly, and I want to be prepared when something inevitably breaks.
So, our stable of cars is now exclusively V8 powered. Somewhat sadly, my daily driven 1989 Pontiac Formula, with it's 350 TPI putting out 245+ hp and 345 ft/lbs of torque is the weakest of the herd. Oddly enough, I'm good with that.
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