Used Cars: Looking at buying a Dodge Ram 1500, dodge ram 1500, ford chevy

Question
Iam looking off into buying a Dodge Ram 1500 slt 2002-2004 I here alot people say Dodges are a peace of crap dont do it . Is there any truth to this?? Thank you

Answer
I have been in several dodges of many different years and types, they seem to be average build quality for an american car, but just as you have heard - i too have heard - they are  crappy... well as far as I know this isn't entirely true, they aren't BAD cars/trucks, the engines are questionable b/c of dodges reliability record, and the interior quality is low compared to competitors... they dont hold their resale for crap either... this can be a good or bad thing.. If you dont plan on keeping it forever, its a bad thing because it will be hard to sell it for anything but a massive loss, if you plan on keeping it for a long time, the loss wont hurt you (and the low resale also means the used truck will be cheaper than any other brands equivalent) and then you are paying alot less for a fairy average vehicle... it all depends on what you want... reliable/dependable/high resale = toyota or honda (ford or chevy diesels)... cheap/avg. reliability, low resale would be a dodge... ford and chevy are higher mostly by namesake, so if you find a dodge much cheaper and its similar to the other 2 big american brands... go for it.. otherwise... the tundra is a great machine and they have gone way down in price lately because of gas, be sure to consider it, otherwise... dodges arent pieces of crap anymore, they were in the 90's but they seem to be really getting it together, and the bad reputation is keeping prices low, which means good deals for people buying... just not selling... dont expect anything special, but it should be on par with the avg. ford/chevy truck, plus it looks sexy... just make sure you can't afford a tundra first... 100,000 miles on a tundra is like 60,000 on a dodge... the engines will both make it to ~150,000 but everything will start falling apart on the dodge while the tundra will be far more solid all the way till the engine dies... hope this helps - good luck - and dont listen to the hype, people make assumptions without researching anything - look it up (consumerguide.com, motortrend.com, consumerreports.com) lately dodge has been getting some pretty good reviews, they have made a great turn around from the 90's... good luck with your purchase!