Chrysler

Dodge

By moshes on | From dodge-motors.blogspot.com

Dodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, and sport utility vehicles, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide.

Dodge

Founded as the Dodge Brothers Company in 1900 to supply parts and assemblies for Detroit's growing auto industry, Dodge began making its own complete vehicles in 1915. The brand was sold to Chrysler Corporation in 1928, passed through the short-lived DaimlerChrysler merger of 1998–2007 as part of the Chrysler Group, was a part of Chrysler LLC owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity investment firm, and is now a part of the Chrysler Group LLC which has an alliance with Fiat. Fiat has plans to evolve many Dodge, Chrysler, and Jeep existing platforms and products into Fiat-Chrysler co-developed vehicles.

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 Rationalizing Chrysler's broad lineup was a priority, and Dodge's sister brand Plymouth was withdrawn from the market.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 became DaimlerChrysler's low-price division as well as its performance division.

Dodge logo

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, it was a modest success. The Charger was launched in 2006 on the same platform.

Further cost savings were explored in the form of an extensive platform-sharing arrangement with Mitsubishi, which spawned the Caliber subcompact as a replacement for the Neon and the Avenger sedan. The rear-drive chassis was then used in early 2008 to build a new Challenger, with styling reminiscent of the original 1970 Challenger.

In Spring 2007, DaimlerChrysler reached an agreement with Cerberus Capital Management to dump its Chrysler Group subsidiary, of which the Dodge division was a part. On June 10, 2009, Italian automaker Fiat formed a partnership with Chrysler in which a "New Chrysler" was formed and was given the name Chrysler Group LLC, which Dodge remains a part of.

Dodge

In response to very high motor fuel prices in Spring 2008, Dodge initiated a purchase incentive guaranteeing the buyer of a new Dodge would have to pay no more than $2.99 per gallon of gasoline for three years. Shortly after the promotion began, the average price of gasoline dropped well below $2.99 per gallon; working in Dodge's favor.

With the Ram Trucks brand having been created by Chrysler in 2009 for the 2010 model year, Chrysler has since repositioned Dodge much like the former Plymouth brand, discontinued by DaimlerChrysler after the 1999 model year in Canada and the 2001 model year elsewhere.

Current Dodge models