page_title: Dodge
section_title: Founding and early years
hierarchical_section_title: Dodge / History / Founding and early years
caption_attribution_description: English: Light repair truck.
context_page_description: Dodge is an American brand of automobile manufactured by FCA US LLC, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles currently include performance cars, though for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above Plymouth.
  Founded as the Dodge Brothers Company machine shop by brothers Horace Elgin Dodge and John Francis Dodge in the early 1900s, Dodge was originally a supplier of parts and assemblies for Detroit-based automakers and began building complete automobiles under the "Dodge Brothers" brand in 1914, predating the founding of Chrysler Corporation. The factory was located in Hamtramck, Michigan, and was called the Dodge Main factory from 1910 until its closing in January 1980. Both the Dodge brothers died from the Spanish Flu in 1920, and the company was sold by their families to Dillon, Read & Co. in 1925 before being sold to Chrysler in 1928.
  Dodge branded vehicles mainly consisted of trucks and full-sized passenger cars through the 1970s, though it made compact cars and midsize cars.
  The 1973 oil crisis and its subsequent impact on the American automobile industry led Chrysler to develop the K platform of compact to midsize cars for the 1981 model year.
context_section_description: Horace and John Dodge founded the Dodge Brothers Company in Detroit in 1900, and quickly found work manufacturing precision engine and chassis components for the city's growing number of automobile firms. Chief among these customers were the established Olds Motor Vehicle Company and the new Ford Motor Company. Henry Ford selected the Dodge brothers to supply a wide range of components for his original Model A (1903–04) that included the complete chassis; thus Ford needed to add only the body and wheels to finish the cars. Henry offered the Dodge brothers a 10% share in his new company in return for $10,000 worth of goods.
  The first machine shop where the brothers worked as parts suppliers for Olds and Ford was located at the Boydell Building on Beaubien Street at Lafayette. This location was replaced by a larger facility at Hastings Street and Monroe Avenue, which is now a parking garage for the Greektown Casino Hotel (Hastings Street at this location has been renamed Chrysler Service Drive). By 1910 the Dodge Main factory was built in Hamtramck, where it remained until 1979.
  The Dodge Brothers Motor Company was established in 1913 and by 1914, John and Horace designed and debuted the first car of their own – the four-cylinder Dodge Model 30/35 touring car. Marketed as a slightly more upscale competitor to the ubiquitous Ford Model T, it pioneered or made standard many features later taken for granted, like all-steel body construction (as the vast majority of cars worldwide still used wood-framing under steel panels); 12-volt electrical system (6-volt systems would remain the norm until the 1950s); 35 horsepower engines versus the Model T's 20 horsepower, and sliding-gear transmission (the best-selling Model T would retain an antiquated planetary design until its demise in 1927). Once the Dodge brothers produced their own car, John Dodge was once quoted as saying, "Someday, people who own a Ford are going to want an automobile". As a result of this, and the brothers' well-earned reputation for the highest quality truck, transmission and motor parts they made for other successful vehicles, Dodge Brothers cars were ranked at second place for U.S. sales as early as 1916.
  That same year, Henry Ford decided to stop paying stock dividends to finance the construction of his new River Rouge complex, and the Dodges filed a suit to protect their annual stock earnings of approximately one million dollars, leading Ford to buy out his shareholders; the Dodges were paid some US$25 million. They had already earned $9,871,500 in dividends making a total return of $34,871,500 on their original $10,000 investment. The contract with Ford set them up for life, but they never got to spend it.
  Also in 1916, the Dodge Brothers vehicles won acclaim for their durability in military service. First with the U.S. Army's Pancho Villa Expedition, during the 1910s U.S. Mexico Border War—the U.S. military's first operation to use truck convoys. General "Blackjack" Pershing procured a fleet of 150 to 250 Dodge Brothers vehicles for the Mexico campaign. Touring cars were used as staff and reconnaissance vehicles; Pershing himself used a Dodge touring car to keep abreast of army columns and control their movements.
  One notable instance was in May when the 6th Infantry received a reported sighting of Julio Cárdenas, one of Villa's most trusted subordinates. Lt. George S. Patton led ten soldiers and two civilian guides in three Dodge Model 30 touring cars to conduct America's first motorized military raid at a ranch house in San Miguelito, Sonora. During the ensuing firefight the party killed three men, of whom one was identified as Cárdenas. Patton's men tied the bodies to the hoods of the Dodges, returning to headquarters in Dublán and an excited reception from US newspapermen.
  Subsequently, some 12,800 Dodge cars and light trucks were used in World War I —over 8,000 touring cars, as well as 2,600 commercial vehicles, such as screen-side trucks and panel vans—serving primarily as ambulances and repair trucks.
  Dodge remained the United States military's p
caption: M1918 light repair truck G10, likely U.S. Army (Field Artillery Journal Sep-Oct 1920)
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