After the founding of the Dodge Brothers Company by Horace and John Dodge in 1900, the Detroit-based company quickly found work producing precision engine and chassis components for the city’s growing number of automobile firms. Chief among these customers were the established Olds Motor Vehicle Company and the then-new Ford Motor Company.

Dodge History

To fit better in the Chrysler Corporation lineup, alongside low-priced Plymouth and medium-priced DeSoto, Dodge’s lineup for early 1930 was trimmed down to a core group of two lines and thirteen models (from three lines and nineteen models just over a year previous). Prices started out just above DeSoto but were somewhat less than top-of-the-line Chrysler, in a small-scale recreation of General Motors’ “step-up” marketing concept. (DeSoto and Dodge would swap places in the market for the 1933 model year, Dodge dropping down between Plymouth and DeSoto.) As Plymouth cars were sold at Chrysler dealerships, Dodge branded vehicles were sold as a lower cost alternative to DeSoto.

Chrysler was prolific in its production of war materiel from 1942 to 1945, and Dodge in particular was well known to both average citizens and thankful soldiers for their tough military-spec truck models and ambulances like the WC54. Starting with the hastily converted VC series and evolving into the celebrated WC series, Dodge built a strong reputation for itself that readily carried over into civilian models after the war.

Civilian production at Dodge was restarted by late 1945, in time for the 1946 model year. The “seller’s market” of the early postwar years, brought on by the lack of any new cars throughout the war, meant that every automaker found it easy to sell vehicles regardless of any drawbacks they might have. Like almost every other automaker, Dodge sold lightly facelifted revisions of its 1942 design through the 1948 season. As before, these were a single series of six-cylinder models with two trim levels (basic Deluxe or plusher Custom). From 1949 until 1954, Fluid Drive could be combined with “Gyro-Matic,” a semi-automatic transmmission which reduced (but didn’t eliminate) the need to shift gears.

In a move that never lived up to the expectations of its driving forces, Chrysler Corporation merged with Daimler-Benz AG in 1998 to form DaimlerChrysler. Rationalizing Chrysler’s broad lineup was a priority, and Dodge’s sister brand Plymouth was withdrawn from the market. With this move, Dodge History became DaimlerChrysler’s low-price division as well as its performance division.

The Intrepid, Stratus, and Neon updates of the 1998 to 2000 timeframe were largely complete before Daimler’s presence, and Dodge’s first experience of any platform sharing with the German side of the company was the 2005 Magnum station wagon, introduced as a replacement for the Intrepid. Featuring Chrysler’s first mainstream rear-wheel drive platform since the 1980s and a revival of the Hemi V8 engine. The Charger was launched in 2006 on the same platform.

Remember that before you buy, check the history of the vehicle. You do this by typing the VIN Number Dodge below:

Source: wikipedia.org