On November 14th, 1914, John and Horace Dodge's first-ever automobile rolled off the assembly line at the Hamstramck plant. Later nicknamed ''Old Betsy,'' the Dodge Brothers Touring was an instant hit.
The first Dodge vehicles stood out with six hex-shaped rear windows, and quality checks were conducted by the Dodge brothers themselves.
The company became the second-best selling automaker in the U.S. at one point (behind Ford), but the successive deaths of John and Horace in 1920 resulted in a number of setbacks that eventually pushed Dodge into the hands of an investment group in 1925, three years before its purchase by Chrysler.
Now, Dodge is especially popular for its minivans, which have celebrated their 30th birthday earlier this year.
Fun fact: Theodore MacManus, a marketing genius for Dodge, actually invented a word that Webster had not included in his first dictionary: dependability.
Source: Wikipedia
The first Dodge vehicles stood out with six hex-shaped rear windows, and quality checks were conducted by the Dodge brothers themselves.
The company became the second-best selling automaker in the U.S. at one point (behind Ford), but the successive deaths of John and Horace in 1920 resulted in a number of setbacks that eventually pushed Dodge into the hands of an investment group in 1925, three years before its purchase by Chrysler.
Now, Dodge is especially popular for its minivans, which have celebrated their 30th birthday earlier this year.
Fun fact: Theodore MacManus, a marketing genius for Dodge, actually invented a word that Webster had not included in his first dictionary: dependability.
Source: Wikipedia