The Dodge Dakota, known as the Ram Dakota for the final two years of production, is a mid-size pickup truck sold between 1987 through 2011. The Dakota was nominated for the North American Truck of the Year award for 2000. The Dakota has always been sized above the compact Ford Ranger and Chevrolet S-10, but below the full-sized pickups such as Dodge's own Ram. Dodge built the Dakota in three generations: 1st Gen (1987-1996), 2nd Gen (1997-2004), and 3rd Gen (2005-2011). The most notable Dakota variant was the one year only Dodge Shelby Dakota.