Single-Syllable Cars From A Single-Syllable State: 2011 Ford Edge vs 2011 Dodge Ram

In all this whole great big country of ours, there is only one state with a single-syllable name, way up there in the upper-right corner of the map: Maine. You know what else almost never has single-syllable names? Cars. Especially if you consider both the make and the model. You know what has a lot of syllables? The word “monosyllabic.” But whatever. We’re just here to look at a Dodge, and a Ford.

Yesterday‘s uncommon cars from Alabama turned out to be a pretty close race. A lot of you were afraid of the Biturbo’s finicky engine, but a lot of you were bored silly by the thought of an automatic kei car too. I let the vote tally run for a bit longer than usual, just to see if the result would change, but it looks like the Maserati is holding on to a slim but steady lead.

Many of you mentioned swapping a more reliable engine into the Maserati, but I personally don’t like that idea much. The twin-turbo V6 is too much a part of its character, and its identity. Swap in something else, and you’ve just got a boxy little coupe with tridents on it. Keep that fragile V6 running, however, and you’ve got a piece of automotive history.

These cars have something in common besides their monosyllabic names: they both come from a time after Detroit started moving away from tried-and-true pushrod engines and four-speed automatics and into the world of more complex drivelines. With the added complexity came some teething problems, and both of these vehicles have some potential issues. But it sounds like they both run and drive fine now, so let’s check them out.

2011 Ford Edge SEL – $2,500

Engine/drivetrain: 3.5 liter DOHC V6, six-speed automatic, AWD

Location: Rockport, ME

Odometer reading: 183,000 miles

Operational status: Ad isn’t clear; we’ll presume it runs and drives

If you’re an auto enthusiast, you take one look at a car like the Ford Edge and immediately recoil. This vehicle, and dozens like it, is the enemy of fun, the antithesis of something like a Miata or a Lotus Elise. It’s heavy, ungainly, and dull. But it’s also incredibly useful and safe, which is why it’s so popular. The Ford Edge isn’t for us enthusiasts. But that doesn’t make it a bad car. I bring this up to remind myself of this as much as anyone else.

The Edge is powered by a 3.5 liter Duratec V6, mounted transversely in the front. The only transmission available is a six-speed automatic. It’s all-wheel-drive, which probably helps quite a bit in the snowy Maine winters. The seller doesn’t explicitly say how well it runs; all they tell us is that it has been “well maintained.” The Edge is generally considered pretty reliabile, but its engine does feature one of Ford’s dumber designs – the water pump is mounted in the valley between the cylinder banks, and if it fails, it can dump coolant into the oil and destroy the whole engine. Replacing the pump before it fails is the best prevention, but that’s not cheap either. It’s not necessarily a reason to avoid this car, but it is something to keep in mind.

Not only did this era usher in new and complicated drivetrains, it also introduced us to a new portmanteau: “infotainment.” Suddenly every car had a touchscreen in the dashboard, and a way to connect your phone. Fortunately, Ford also saw fit to include a bunch of buttons and knobs if you’d rather control things that way. The seller doesn’t give us any clear photos of the seating surfaces, which is a little worrisome, but the dash and rear cargo area don’t look trashed, so hopefully the seats are still acceptable.

Outside, it looks good at first glance, and it wears a cool set of aftermarket wheels, but there’s a catch: the seller says it needs rust repair underneath. The extent of the rust damage isn’t known, and we don’t get any photos to judge it, so you’d have to check it out yourself to see how bad it is.

2011 Dodge Ram 1500 Crew Cab – $3,950

Engine/drivetrain: 4.7 liter OHC V8, five-speed automatic, RWD

Location: Waterboro, ME

Odometer reading: 195,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives well

OK, you got me: technically this isn’t a Dodge. Chrysler spun off Ram as its own brand for the 2011 model year, but nobody really noticed andwe all just kept calling them Dodge trucks for a few more years. The seller even has it listed as a Dodge. Besides, Ram is a dumb brand name. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a half-ton crew cab, which has become the default truck bodystyle in the past decade or two, now that trucks have become family vehicles.

It’s two-wheel-drive, which is fine for most situations, and makes maintenance and repair a lot simpler. Dodge had long since dropped the old Magnum overhead-valve V8s in favor of the PowerTech 4.7 liter and Hemi 5.7 liter V8s; I know you want me to tell you this one has a Hemi, but it doesn’t. The 4.7 has a hit-or-miss reputation; some people have had timing chain issues, but others have gone a quarter million miles or more without issue. This one is rapildy approaching 200,000 miles, but the seller says it’s in good condition. It has new brakes and wheel bearings in front, too.

Trucks used to be basic and utilitarian inside, but they also used to be relegated to work duties, not commuting and kid-hauling. By 2011, they had all the same basic comfort and convenience features as any other car, along with comfy seats and plenty of sound-deadening. This one looks a little grubby inside, and it has a rip in the driver’s seat, but at this mileage, I’ve seen a lot worse.

The drawback to the crew-cab body is that you have to take length away from the bed to make up for it. This truck has a short five-and-a-half-foot bed, six inches shorter than the old short-bed compact trucks. It’s still a lot of room for cargo, but longer stuff has to rest against the tailgate at an angle. Or, usually it would; this truck has no tailgate. It may be included and just not installed; you’d have to ask the seller. If it isn’t, you can probably find one in a junkyard. Maybe you could even find one from a truck a year or two older that says Dodge on it.

These cars are both fourteen years old now, but they still feel new to me. Cars I think of as being fourteen years old are actually more like twice that, and well on their way to becoming classics. Maybe we need a better classification system for old cars, dividing them into old-old cars and new-old cars, or something? But where should we draw the line? Or am I just overthinking this whole thing? Let me know what you think in the comments, and, of course, which one of these you prefer.