I do know a lot of the 3.1/3.4's that had intake problems, but I always thought it was due to the intake coolant passage design and poor gasket material, on top of the higher corrosive properties, but outside of that I have yet to run across a major problem with it at work.
As for costs...
Figure that the tires and align are gunna cost you 500-700 bucks, depending on the quality of tire and price of alignments. If you are gunna tow and do hard work, investing in an LT tire instead of a P-metric tire might benifit you due to the added load capacity and heavier carcas.
Brakes, if you do it yourself, will save you a lot of money.
As for the actual cost...you could always use that figure to fight with the dealer to get the price down more.
