Dodge's Dakota has always followed a pretty simple strategy: stay one step ahead of everyone else in all quantifiable areas. Ranger, Tacoma, and S-10 too compact? Make Dakota taller, wider, and a foot longer. Everyone stuck with weak 4-and 6-cylinder engines that can barely pull a U-Haul? Start with a V6 and offer a step-up V8 that can haul ass. Not enough room? Give Dakota four full doors, then watch a whole new segment spring up around it from everyone else's mimicking.To Dodge's dismay, the mimicking has gone on for a while now. Nearly everyone has been matching the Dakota's targets, especially lately and especially the Japanese. After all, adding capacity and capaciousness is hardly a secret formula.Dodge can't get away with this one-upmanship forever - there's something called the Ram serving as the upwardly mobile glass ceiling - but with the new Dakota of 2005, they're pulling it off one last time. So after eight straight years of living with the last version, it's time to say hello to the biggest, most capable Dakota yet, and possibly ever.