When Dodge started out with the muscle cars, little did they know that they would become one of the leading auto manufacturers in the United States in just a few short years. Before trying their luck in car manufacturing, Horace Elgin Dodge and John Francis were ordinary bike and machine mechanics. In 1901, the duo decided to move their company, Dodge Brothers Bicycle & Machine Factory, to Detroit, Michigan, and this move proved to be very successful.

For many years, the Dodge Brothers were the leading suppliers of car parts to many other companies until they were overrun by Cadillac. Due to their early involvement in the manufacture and supply of car parts, they decided to start their own car manufacturing business, effectively throwing them in the fierce but relatively untapped car industry in the country back then. The Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle Company was thus established in 1914, and that was the beginning of a company that has been around for over a century, and has no signs of slowing down.

The first cars produced by Dodge had certain similar features to Ford’s T model, only that they had better ignition and other improvements which made them easy to drive and operate than the latter. One of the outstanding features of the improvements was the smooth electric start as opposed to the sluggish loud start that Ford and other vehicles had back then.

By 1917, Dodge had produced a good number of units and thought of expanding their venture into other car manufacturing niches. They thought trucks would be more appealing and so they formed the Dodge Truck Division, where they produced trucks that were later to be used by the US Army during the First World War. After the war, the trucks were used for commercial purposes.

The Dodge brothers however decided to sell their venture at a cost of $146, to Dillon, Read & Company, a figure said to have been the largest in history to be paid at a time. Dillon operated Dodge for only three years then sold it to Chrysler Corporation in 1928.

Since Chrysler already had a strong presence in the European auto market, Dodge was introduced in Europe in the 1960s and the initial distribution comprised of lightweight vehicles marketing under a different brand. The Dodge 50 had a fairly good reception in the UK and it became an immediate favorite for utility operations and the military. Chrysler’s European’s subsidiary however, collapsed in 1977, and this also saw the beginning of Dodge’s demise from the region.

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