The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1920-12-16
DODGE BROS. TELL
ABOUT AUTO PRICES

Prospective buyers who are wait
ing for Dodge Brothers to reduce
the price Of their cars will be dis
| appointed, according to l.. S. Ben
nett, Of Bennett Brothers, who re-
Gently attended a meeting of Dodge
I Brothers NOrthWet dealers held in
II Brothers Northwest dealers held in
confidence, c. W. Matheson, acting
/ salesmanager for Dodge Brothers,
gave some enlightening facts about
the cost Of building Dodge Brothers
cars He said in part:
The reason people do not buy
goods is because they do not under
stand values; the reason they do
not understand values is because
/ they have never been taught values;
and the reason they have never been
/ taught values is because they have
never had any standard to go by.
/ Dodge Brothers six years ago un-
/ dertook to do something that has
never been done before. They un
/ dertook to and did establish a stan
/ dard of motor car values; a stan
/ dard by which motor car values
could be judged
"IoW did they go about to do |
that? They determined, first of all, |
they would not build a car to con
form to a price, but instead they |
would create a car to conform to an |
ideal which existed in their minds. |
They believed the public wanted a |
better car Of a certain type; they |
believed that the public wanted a |
car of a certain type that they could |
afford to buy; that would be safe to |
ride in that would give them assur-
ance of long life and economical SER
vice. good-looking, easy-riding,
high-grade car, at a low price.
There was not such a car as that
in the market at the time. Dodge
Brothers undertook to and did build
that kind of a car.
81 win give you a few Illustrations
to show you how they carried out
their plans We viii take, for eX-
ample the radiator All radiators
up to that time had been made OF
brass. All the types of radiators in
the market at that time were tried
out The tubular type OF radiator
was found to be the most efficient;
it was made of brass. Mr.. John F.
Dodge inquired how much more eff
ficient would that radiator be if it's
|
it proved to be six per cent more
efficient than the same radiator made
of brass. Mr.. Dodge then said: Our
radiators win be made of "copper"
He did not ask, how much more
will it cost if made of copper He
did not care what the cost was, be-
cause that cost would be figured
in the selling price.
Another illustration is that Of the
starter generator Dodge Brothers
tried out the leading starter genera
tors There were many well-mown,
highgrade starter generators on the
market, the name of any one Of
which, in the specifications of a new
car, would have carried with it
feeling of confidence. When | first
read the specifications of Dodge Bro
theirs car and found the Northeast
Starter Generator specified, it meant
nothing to me, or to you or to the
public Dodge Brothers did not care
anything about that They knew
what the Northeast Starter Genera
tor would do in the hands of the
car owners. One receiving the report
of their engineers, they decided to
buy the Northeast Starter Generator.
1t cost more than any other starter
generator in the market by a wide
margin, but it was procured because G
it was the best You know the re-
suit.
Built First Welded Body
Take the body There never had j
been an allmetal body commercially I
All bodies had been |
made Of wood and sheet metal, v
screwed and riveted together, e
sQueaking, short-lived. Dodge Broth f
ars conceived the idea of building e
o body practically without joints, in d
that all joints were electrically weld
cd without rvets, without wood; T.
body that would carry a permanent e
finish, that would not squeak, wou1o q
not rattle, would last, and at the 4
same time would be conspicuously C
handsome. The dies from which i
these bodies were built cost a quar- a
ter million dollars-a heavy invest n
ment, especially when every one n
said it is not possible to build that o
design of body. The body cost more Il
money but it was a better body t'
And so, throughout the scores il
aud scores Of items entering into a
The construction OF the car, Dodge b