Dodge’s History and What’s Lined Up
The Dodge automobile group started in 1914. From 1914 to 1927 they produced a series of automobiles and light an heavy trucks. Chrysler acquired the Dodge company in 1928. Daimler-Benz acquired the Chrysler corporation in 1998, which now makes Dodge apart of the Daimler-Chrysler brand of automobiles.
The Dodge business started as a bicycle business and machine factory. They supplied parts to the earliest automobile makers. The business was started by brothers, John Francis Dodge and Horace Elgin Dodge in Detroit Michigan.
What is rarely written about is that the Dodge brothers helped finance the Ford Motor Company
when in 1902 Henry Ford asked the Dodge brothers to give him money to start his own automobile company. The Dodge brothers made parts for the early Ford cars.
It was in 1914 that they (the Dodge brothers) decided to create their own automobile manufacturing business. Dodge not only created automobiles but trucks as well especially for the Army during the first world war. After the war they sold their trucks commercially.
The Dodge brothers sold their company in 1925 to a company for almost 150 million dollars in cash, making it one of the largest cash transactions in history at that time. In 1928, Dodge was brought by the Chrysler corporation.
Dodge is mainly known for it’s truck divisions, which make up almost 80% of its total sales. The Dodge corporation is trying to change that with the new Dodge Charger. The Dodge Charger was re introduced in 2006. Some critics however believe they did not use the design of the older model Dodge Charger enough and were not happy with the reincarnation of an old classic.
The Dodge brand also has the Dodge Ciper which has been in production since 1992 and is selling very well in the United States of America and Canada.
Dodge has also relaunched in Australia after nearly 30 years of absence. They say they are going to release a new model of the Dodge every 6 months for a 3 year period in Australian to reignite the brand. The first model will be the Dodge Caliber.