Overview & Reviews

One of America's most storied automotive brands, Dodge has been around since the early days of the auto industry. In the past couple of decades, it has revitalized itself to be a producer of aggressively styled and performance-oriented vehicles.

Two brothers, Horace and John Dodge, began the Dodge Brothers Motor Vehicle company in 1914, after having worked as manufacturers of bicycles and automotive parts. Their first vehicle was a touring car that proved a fast favorite with car buyers; it was soon joined by a roadster and a four-door sedan. By 1917, the company's model line had grown to include trucks. Dodge cars and trucks were used as staff vehicles and ambulances in World War I.

Dodge was briefly owned by a banking firm and subsequently sold by its new owner to the Chrysler Corporation in 1928. From there, the brand slowly evolved into the division responsible for trucks and performance-oriented cars. Post WWII, Dodge introduced vehicles like the military-inspired Power Wagon truck, Hemi-powered Coronet and the Royal Lancer; in addition, the manufacturer began offering dealer-installed air-conditioning.

Vehicles like the Dodge Dart and the Coronet kept the manufacturer in American driveways throughout the 1960s. That decade also saw the launch of one of Dodge's most iconic vehicles, the Charger. Dodge's muscle car was based on the Coronet platform, and featured a fastback roof line, hidden headlamps and a full-width taillamp panel. Best of all, the Charger could pack one heck of a wallop under the hood. A 318-cubic-inch V8 was standard, but buyers seeking maximum brawn could upgrade to a 426-cubic-inch, 425-hp Hemi V8. The company also introduced a Mustang-fighting pony car, called the Challenger, in 1970.

As with other American auto manufacturers, Dodge's fortunes started to slip in the '70s due to changing tastes and increased competition. The company was saved from extinction in the early '80s thanks to government loans and the sales success of its Omni and Aries economy cars (the former an attempted copy of the VW Rabbit). But 1984 was when Dodge made its mark in the history books with the introduction of the wildly popular Caravan. Ideal for families and able to seat up to seven, the space-efficient Caravan started a whole new vehicle segment -- the minivan.

The early '90s saw the company wow the public with the V10-powered Viper roadster and an all-new Ram pickup that set a new standard for big-rig-like styling. A few years later, Dodge came to be part of DaimlerChrysler, a result of the merger of the German company Daimler (owner of Mercedes-Benz) and Chrysler.

The merger never really worked, however, and Daimler sold Chrysler and Dodge to a private equity firm in 2007. Soon after, America's economy slid into recession. Due to poor sales and debt, Chrysler had to declare bankruptcy. The federal government intervened and eventually Dodge came under control of Fiat, a European automaker known for its small cars, an area where Dodge's entries had been roundly criticized for mediocre build quality and unrefined performance.

More recent years have seen Dodge concentrate on the more practical vehicles in its lineup, making notable improvements to the performance and overall quality of its midsize Avenger sedan and Journey SUV entries. Dodge also spun off its truck line, making it a separate Ram brand. But make no mistake; Dodge is still considered Chrysler's performance division thanks to cars like the Challenger and Charger. Time will tell how successful Dodge's latest makeover is.

User Reviews:

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  Awesome truck - 1994 Dodge Dakota
  By Dave - August 25 - 12:47 pm

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  Do not know what all the complaining is about? - 2015 Dodge Journey
  By Thomas H - August 24 - 1:53 pm

  I love this car. I am a life long GM guy and this puts the Chevy Equinox to shame. The car size is just right, not too big, not too small. This car is fantastic in the Winter. I love the auto heated seats and steering wheel, also the awd. The seats are very comfortable, the radio nav screen is nice and big. The rear air and heat are awsome along with the 3rd row. The 1 big thing it needs is daytime running lites for extra safety.

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  Great for the price and looks - 2008 Dodge Avenger
  By Aaron Davis - August 21 - 12:48 am

  I have only had the car for a little over 2 months, but I really do love it considering I upgraded from a 2004 Dodge Neon SXT. But sadly enough my neon was smaller yet the avenger yields about the same gas mileage so thats a plus but odd enough my neon was faster than this lug of a car. 2.4L 4cyl engine just isnt enough to haul the weight of the car.. If I was buying this car id recommend getting the 2.7L or 3.5L. It doesnt have the performance I was expecting but I like the sleek performance look though and get compliments on it especially since mine has 17 Challenger rims on it. But it is a great family car I would say. Also nice that it has Sirius Radio and the cooler for 4 cans of soda which is pretty neat.

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  not a reliable car - 2015 Dodge Journey
  By James - August 19 - 8:09 pm

  I bought my car in july 4th abd since then have taken it to the dodge place twice for parts on my transmission failing. It has less than 2000 miles on it and i bought it with 3 miles in it. This is the biggest garbage i have ever bought from dodge. Should have kept my caliber

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  A Worthy Commuter Car - 2014 Dodge Dart
  By Jordan Bockelman - August 19 - 6:36 pm

  I bought my 2014 GT (pitch black with hyper black wheels, automatic transmission,) new in April of 2014 and over a year and 17000 miles later I have very few, very minor complaints. Overall its a great car and gets me to work on time with good MPG. Outward visibility is good, but as with most new cars the A and C pillars are quite thick and hard to see around. Thankfully my car has blind spot monitoring which has helped me more than once! The whole infotainment system works exceptionally well. All the menus are extremely easy to navigate and operate, but the touch sensitivity should be adjustable. More than once Ive found myself tapping the same button multiple times trying to get it to register. Navigation, radio controls, climate controls, theyre all very user friendly. There are two features that I found annoying. The rain sensing windshield wipers dont work very well. They tend not to be very intuitive and I ended up disabling it. The other feature I dislike is the rear parking sensors. They work very well, but I disabled them because while backing out of my garage they would go insane. Not a fun thing first thing in the morning. Interestingly even after the sensors have been turned off, they still sometimes sporadically work. Sometimes while backing out of a steep driveway the sensors will go off at random. Sometimes theyll sense something extremely far away, something it wouldnt sense if the sensors were turned on. And sometimes they do nothing at all. The other complaint I have is the ride quality. I didnt really know what I was getting myself into when I bought the GT. It rides like a rock in a washer, but thats what its supposed to do. It corners really well and rides fairly quietly, but due to the terrible roads in my town, the car takes a bit of a beating and I feel most of it too. As a result the plastic panel above the rear view mirror rattles against the windshield and tends to drive me nuts.

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  This SUV reliability sucks!!! - 2015 Dodge Journey
  By Vannessa - August 19 - 12:07 am

  We purchased a 2015 Dodge Journey with only 13 miles in less than 24hrs the vehicle shut down on us 3x it has been in for service 3x with the problem happening more than 10x even while on the highway with my children in the vehicle. The dealership refused to trade it out!! Even if we were within our 30day warranty 2,500 miles warranty period!!! I would NOT recommend this vehicle to anyone!!!! Now there is 4 other Dodge journey in for service for the same problem as mine!!! So discussed with the service at Dodge Larry H. Miller in Avondale, AZ.

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  High Maintenance spouse - 2014 Dodge Durango
  By Brian Smith - August 18 - 7:35 am

  Beautiful vehicle but I am not sure a high end Dodge is a great choice. It seems Dodge is still figuring out how to implement gadgets properly. - Gas mileage is shockingly good if you manually shift. - Acceleration on the six cylinder is not as good as I had hoped (Wife purchased the car when i was out of town). However, it is not horrible. - Tow rating is too low, now I have to buy a truck to tow the camper I want - A/C went out on summer road trip from Texas. Dealership support was unsympathetic and very poor. After multiple trips to dealerships on the trip, it was finally fixed - Equalizer settings are quirky. Turn down the base and the midrange turns up. Dodge cannot figure it out - Plastic trim on the dash near the windshield sticks up. It isnt flush. it looks ugly. Dodge replaced and the new piece is the same. Overall, i love the vehicle, but Dodge has some things to figure out. Particularly on a 48k list vehicle.

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  Not what I thought it would be. ... - 2013 Dodge Dart
  By Daddy-O - August 17 - 10:06 pm

  First, I didnt buy new so I cant say anything prior but since Ive owned it (3 months), its been in the shop 5 times for strange popping noises in front end area. Ive taken it to two different dealers and have gotten two different reasons why is doing it. But neither say it can be repaired. One says its a design flaw, the other just doesnt know why. Bottom line, its a great looking piece of junk. I wonder if it was really built by Yugo!

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  Very nice, stylish, daily driver. - 2015 Dodge Dart
  By Michael Keogh - August 16 - 5:14 pm

  This review will come across as confused. I love the look of my 2015 Dodge Dart SE auto with Rallye Package (auto option was not available in this review page). The car is comfortable, rides very well, and is quiet. The stylish exterior belies its performance. Handling is adequate for a 4-door sedan. The suspension springs are too soft to qualify this car as a sport sedan. The acceleration with this 2.0L auto is lethargic. Six speeds is too many. The transmission is always shifting trying to find the perfect gear ratio. One would think that would help fuel economy, but it doesnt. 99% of my driving is city driving and I am averaging just 22 mpg. Youd think with a 2.0L, 4-cylinder, MPG would be better. This is probably attributed the cars heft. The one good thing about the Dodge Dart is that it is cheap. With generous incentives and a well negotiated price, I purchased my car new for just over $15,000. I needed a cheap 4-door sedan, and this seemed the best option for a new vehicle.

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  Sinister SRT 392 packs a vicious punch - 2015 Dodge Challenger
  By Mike V - August 16 - 12:37 am

  Well where do I start. Hmm oh yeah the 6.4 Liter Hemi is a beast. Have put down consistent mid 4 second zero to 60 times with no effort whatsoever with a best so far of 4.2 seconds. Took it to Route 66 dragway and have turned mid 12s all day long at an average of 111 mph. Nothing has even come close to beating me on the street and most dont even try. I opted for the Redline Red Tricoat paint job and it literally can look like three different colors depending on the lighting from fire engine red in the sunlight to Candy apple in the shade, absolutely wicked! I nearly settled for a Scat pack but Im really glad I went with the SRT. For about 5 grand more you get 6 piston red Brembo calipers up front and red for piston Brembos out back that clamp this hefty muscle car down from any speed with ease. Im averaging 17.5 miles per gallon at excessive highway speed along with aggressive of highway driving. This thing comes standard with a rocking 18 speaker Harmon Kardon 900 Watt sound system that has some serious bass provided via 2 perfectly placed subwoofers where the spare tire should typically reside. But I barely ever turn it up because of the absolutely sick sounding soundtrack provided by the 2 tailpipes pumping out the best sounding V8 music Ive ever heard and its utterly addicting. Put the fun pedal to the floor and those babies open up like I put a $2000 exhaust system on it. Ive never experienced a vehicle from the factory with the raw power, sound, ride quality the list goes on and on. Especially for $50K its an unbeatable vehicle in every way. The SRT drive mode selectors are truly amazing that gives this monster the ability to drive like 3 different vehicles and you can mix up the ride pretty much any way you like. I usually go with full traction control along with track transmission which doesnt allow the 4 cylinder shutdown to occur and offers lighting quick shifts. Then stiffen up the suspension and steering a bit and have a blast anywhere I need to go. Theres a never ending list of cool technology and excellent safety features this vehicle offers I could go on all day. Ive owned Camaro Ive owned Mustang and they dont even come close to competing with the 392. 100 percent satisfied with my purchase and plan on keeping this beast for a long time.