About Dodge Cars
 The Dodge motor company was originally founded in 1900 as the Dodge Brothers Company by brothers Horace and John Dodge. Based in Detroit it produced precision engine and chassis components for the many car makers in the city. Although they enjoyed much success in this area of the business what the brothers really wanted to do was make complete cars.
And so in 1914 they built the new four-cylinder Dodge Model 30. Intended as an upmarket rival to the Model T Ford with an all steel body and sliding-gear transmission, it enhanced the brothers reputation for quality and by 1916 their cars were ranked second for US sales.
Sadly, both brothers died in 1920 and the company was passed to their widows who appointed Frederick Haynes, a trusted, long serving employee, as the new president. Unfortunately for him by 1925 Dodge had fallen to fifth place for US sales, and so the company was sold in the same year to Dillon, Read & Co. for $146 million, which was a huge amount of money at the time.
The new owners were unable to turn the company around and in 1928 it was bought by the Chrysler Corporation. Over the next four decades Dodge produced many famous models such as the Dodge Dart, the Custom 880 and the iconic Dodge Charger.
However in the early 1970's all car production in the US suffered due to the oil crisis, and Dodge were no exception. They fought back hard and in the early 90's produced the Dodge Viper, but ongoing environmental awareness and high petrol prices were still a problem.
The Chrysler Corporation merged with Daimler-Benz in 1998 and Dodge became the new low price leader as the company struggled to produce more 'green' models. In 2007 the parent company sold the Chrysler group, which included Dodge, to a private equity firm. It's future at this time is uncertain, but it may well be a key player in the long term future of car manufacturing by Chrysler.
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