I just bought a new 2008 Dodger Ram 1500, V6, 6 speed man. trans. No whistles or bells. Drives great. My question.
What can I expect to go wrong, & when?
If you religiously follow the recommended maintenance procedures (as outlined in the owner’s manual), then nothing.
The only thing I would do is find a good way to keep track of technical service bulletins (TSBs) on the truck (recalls you should hear about automatically). I don’t know the best way to do that, but I often end up here: http://www.carcomplaints.com/
You can also go lurk about on this board: http://www.ramchargercentral.com/ to see what others come up with.
But I think it might be that there is an analogy between real estate and cars - in real estate we all know that the only 3 things you worry about are location, location, and location. For your car the only three things to worry about are maintenance, maintenance, and maintenance.
The Dodge Talk Forums are an invaluable source of information on these pickups.
http://www.dodgetalk.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=78