Used Car of the Day: 1989 Dodge Dakota Sport Convertible

by Tim Healey

Published: August 12th, 2024

used car of the day 1989 dodge dakota sport convertible

Today's UCOTD is bound to upset those who still don't quite understand this feature. I promise I am not doing that intentionally -- I am not that mean (usually). No, I really do believe that the right person could take this project 1989 Dodge Dakota Sport Convertible and make it a fun project truck.

If they have the time, patience, and money.

This one has already been part of an ongoing restoration for 15 years, and it has a lot of miles (280K or more) and is currently non-running, perhaps because of a fuel-pump issue.

The 3.9-liter does have new wires, a new rotor, a new cap, and a new distributor.

It has a five-speed manual transmission and is available with either factory wheels or aftermarket wheels, but not both.

According to our seller, only around 450 of these were made in 1989.

You can find this truck for $2,500 near Topeka, Kansas. You can also click here to see more.

Before you yell at me in the comments, remember the point of this feature is to show interesting vehicles. Including those that might need a ton of work. I am not just looking for show-worthy trailer cars, here.

OK? OK. Good talk.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

Comments

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2 of 26 comments

Arthur Dailey on Aug 13, 2024
As the saying goes 'rare does not mean valuable'. Yes the asking price is low. But the cost of restoration could be astronomical, in comparison to the final value of the vehicle. Now 'back in the day' you might buy a vehicle in this condition, make it a 'runner' and some young guy could drive it around paying perhaps a couple of hundred dollars for insurance.

Like Reply
Lou_BC on Aug 13, 2024
Looks like there are several 15 year restoration projects scattered around that yard.

1 Reply

Recent Comments

Wolfwagen Am I the only one who thinks that this car should be saved and resto-moded with an early 2000's VTEC? Perhaps go a little crazy and swap in the power train from an S2000?
Ger65690267 Well, the TFL guys who have a Cybertruck with even more miles have noted their tires still look fine. They drive all sorts of terrain and situations, and they haven't seen the wear, which means that guy is running his truck probably rather hard more than he cares to admit.
SCE to AUX "EVs tend to chew through tires in a way that surprises many new owners". That hasn't been my experience. My EV has 210 ft-lbs of torque on 16-inch tires, 3100 lbs curb weight. Tire life has been just like a gas car, which varies according to driving habits. So I agree with the "big surprise" headline.
1995 SC Led me down a rabbit hole to see what the OEM tires were. I was curious if they were using some sort of ultra high. performance summer tire (didn't seem to be). However it does look like you need that specific sidewall design or part of the wheel cover won't fit. Not a "feature" I'd want.
Cprescott I used to love spy shots when cars changed so often. No point now in even paying attention to them since cars barely exist and the lard butt CUV/SUV's clog up our roads