Used 1994 Dodge Ram Van Consumer Reviews
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Like, but sort of hate it
Not sure what to say about it... I bought my B250 about 4 years ago for a stupidly cheap price. My biggest complaint is the gas mileage. I think on good days I can get about 11-14 mpg. I think I've had about 6 break downs in the 4 years I've owned it. Changed fuel pump twice (my fault on one), u-joints, evap core, radiator/hoses, and cat converter/muffler. Funny enough, the core engine/transmission itself is great... It's the little bits on the side that keep it going that seem to fail. It always fires up when those bits work, and the engine never burns oil, and the trans. never slips. I'd say back in it's day, it was a pretty reliable vehicle. EDIT: 8-7-2016 Edmunds emailed me and wanted an update on this vehicle. I currently no longer own it, but I can add a few things that went wrong. The voltage regulator went out, and on these vans, it's located in the ECU. If you're unfamiliar with that, it's basically the "brain" of the vehicle. Most do NOT have this part located in the ECU. Everything else functioned on the van that was controlled by the ECU, but this one component went out. It costs a substantial amount of money to replace the ECU, and on top of that, you have to get it programmed at a Dodge dealer to your specific van/vin number, and hope to god they still have the machine that can do that. I dug around on the internet and found this is somewhat of a common problem, and you can wire a separate regulator outside of the ECU and bypass it. I bought a regulator for a 1980's model and wired it to the alternator so it could properly charge the battery. The problem was fixed, but doing this causes the check engine light to always be on, because the ECU thinks the battery isn't getting charged, even though it is with the bypassed regulator. Shortly after, I decided to sell it with the cost of gas being too high at the time to daily the vehicle. Ironically, gas prices started to rapidly drop not long after I sold it, but... oh well. In the end, I'll stick with what I said about the core of the engine. It's pretty reliable there. It never smoked, burned oil, ticked, or knocked. It always fired up even on the coldest mornings. It's just all the electronic bits on the side that made this a pain for me. Towards the end, I think I got most of them fixed, so whoever bought my van probably got a nice deal on it. I may have gotten a dud, so if you find one in decent shape, you might be alright. I'd just ask who's selling what's been done on it.
- Performance
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- Comfort
- Reliability
We love it!!
We bought a converted B250 van to drive down the states in a few years ago. It's kitted with captains chairs, a bench/bed across the back and windows all round. We only had one break down in it on the whole trip down the east coast and back up, and that was just a U joint in the drive shaft. We lived in the UK then, so it's hardly been used since. Glad we kept it now we're here. I love driving it, as it's so comfy and just cruises along. Something that I miss on modern vehicles is the small quarter-light windows that open on the front doors. They really get some fresh air on you when it's hot. It always starts, even after sitting untouched all winter.
Does it's job
Was a delivery truck, now I use it to haul my race bike. 318ci is worn and gutless, giving 14mpg. 3spd auto with OD never wants to "kick down" unless you floor it. Odometer, fuel gauge, and oil pres have all malfunctioned. Found used cluster to replace them though. Even though it's weak and tired, it runs flawless, burning no oil, idles smooth, and climbs hills (slowly). Lots of wind noise from windows and poor fitting driver door seal. Zero rust on this desert van and passes California smog. Having to replace bushings lately, which is fair for the age. Too small mirrors make city driving difficult.
The best vehicle I have ever owned
Since I have had it (five months and counting) I have put 9000 miles on it and have not had one new problem. I did have a problem with it dying at every stoplight since I bought it, but it was nothing a good carburetor cleaning didn't fix. It rides superb surprisingly, it's amazingly quick, and gas mileage is nothing to jump up and down about but could be worse. All in all I would recommend to anyone!
Powerful and reliable
With 230000 miles, it passed smog test in los angeles without any problems.The 5.2 liter is very powerful and very reliable.