Dodge Dakota

In 1987, The Dodge Dakota was launched; it was selected for North American Truck of the Year award for the year 2000. It is a mid-size pick up truck. In literal means, Dakota refers to “ally” or “friend”, in the Sioux Indian language.

Its size was somewhere between the compact and the full-sized pick ups. However, there are many bad things about the Dodge Dakota that disappoint its potential customers.

NHTSA Complaints

Plenty of complaints were reported to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) with regard to the upper ball joint. Amazingly, the reason behind the problem was lack of grease fitting,

As a result, metal-to-metal contact caused the wear-and-tear, and in turn, the breakdown of the vehicle fairly quickly. The ultimate result was complete loss of steering control, and terrible disasters. Dodge Dakota as well as the Durango series were affected by this problem, as per the investigation carried out by the NHTSA on nearly half million vehicles.

Good vs Bad

But, there are many good things about the Dakota too. It had a traditional pickup design with body-on frame construction, equipped with a.V-8 engine. Unfortunately, during the early years, bad things about Dodge Dakota dominated its pros, and hence the vehicle did not become a huge hit in the market. But, in the future generation Chrysler and Dodge made a good effort to take care of the shortcomings.