Posted 09.08.2010

Executive wheels: truck outside, car inside

2010 Dodge Dakota Laramie Crew Cab 4X2

By Jeff Rundles

I've never been much of a truck man. Only once in my life did I actually own a pickup truck - a 1959 GMC that I had from 1973 to 1975 - but over the years I have driven plenty of them, from the standards like the Ford F-150, Dodge Ram and Chevy Silverado, to the behemoths, like the Dodge Ram 3500 SLT Crew Cab Doolie. My objection to owning a truck has always been two-fold: 1) I don't really need one for work (not much to haul around if you're a writer); and, 2) they are just too big for everyday driving around town.

There have been smaller pickups on the market for years, of course, but it always seemed like an oxymoron: a pickup truck that can't really haul much. I mean, c'mon, if you get a pickup truck the idea is to sometimes, at least, use it for the pickup purpose.

So I had relatively low expectations for the 2010 Dodge Dakota Laramie Crew Cab 4X2. I thought it would be a too-small, un-utilitarian, sparse ride. Wrong. Wrong. And wrong.

Turns out, many of the companies associated with pickups - Chevy, Ford and Dodge, with Toyota, Nissan and even Honda thrown in for good measure - understand the basic shortcomings of their pickup trucks for the non-work-related marketplace and they have responded. They have made the smaller pickups larger, although not too large, and therefore more utilitarian, and they have made the cabins more spacious and more car-like, and therefore more day-to-day friendly.

This Dodge Dakota is all that. It's a little large and long, so parking it in some downtown parking spaces and especially parking garages can be taxing. But that is one of Dodge's selling points. Its main competition has a smaller wheelbase: the Dakota is 131.3 inches, while the Ford Ranger (Supercab) is 125.5", the Chevy Colorado (which a few years ago replaced the long-time S-10) is 126", the Toyota Tacoma (AccessCab) is 127.4", and the Nissan Frontier comes in at 125.9". This all compares to the standard full-size pickups where the wheelbase (for cabs with back seats) is, respectively, 144.5" for the Ford F-150 and 143.5" for the Chevy Silverado.

But aside from the size issue, the Dakota is a very comfortable ride. Getting into the larger full-size pickups often requires pulling oneself up, but this Dakota is like a car or a family-friendly SUV. Indeed, the Dakota shares the platform of Dodge's popular SUV the Durango. The whole thing really feels like a mid-size SUV, with a very comfortable cabin, and back seats, with access from full-size doors, just like the SUV backseat. This is truly a pickup truck that fells like an everyday vehicle.

In other words, it's not truck-like but has the benefits of having a pickup truck bed for the times that comes in handy - which, with five children in their early 20s moving all the time from college apartments to post-college digs, is a plus.

So the size and the SUV-like comfort were among my favorite things about the Dakota. I also liked the way it handled - it drove like an SUV as well, with a quiet interior and quite nimble handling. On the down-side was the power.

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