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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  My First Dodge. - 2014 Dodge Durango
  By Jennifer Reynolds - March 24 - 12:21 pm

  My Husband and I upgraded to the 2014 Durango R/T in November 2014. There is about 4500 miles on it so far, and we couldnt be happier with it. We were previously in a 2013 Toyota Venza, and were in the market for a 3rd rower with our 2nd child on the way. The Durangos space is definitely an increase from the Venza, and a great help when you have a 3 year old picky with leg room. This SUV gives you more bang for your buck. I was usually the first to criticize Dodge, but this SUV changed me and my Husband during the test drive. No issues with the vehicle so far.

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  I love this car! - 2004 Dodge Neon
  By spooledup - March 19 - 8:29 am

  I cant get enough of this car. Ive owned it for a little over 5 years and now have over 170,000 miles. It still runs smooth as it did with 65,000 miles and Ive never had an issue with the car other than regular maintenance. Ive changed the timing belt, water pump, clutch/fork, spark plugs, oil, and cam shaft sensor twice, battery and tires. Thats it! All those things would need to be changed on any car so I would say this car is extremely reliable. Its never once left me stranded, and I dont drive like a grandma either. Speaking of which, the performance of this car is amazing. My car is still stock and Ive beat everything from ls1 camaros, to evos and stis.

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  Nice family car for most parts - 2004 Dodge Caravan
  By Halldor Geirsson - March 3 - 4:41 pm

  I had this car (model 2004) for 5 years and drove 64k miles on it (56-110k). The car probably had some prior frontal damage before I bought it, which may have propagated into some of the maintenance issues I ran into. We had to replace a number of things (radiator, alternator/battery, window motor, rotors, tail light, etc) and had the check-engine light on for most of the time, due to some emission codes which could never be figured despite a few tries by the local dealer and another garage. But the great thing about owning a Dodge in the US is that spare parts are easy and quick to get and we probably only lost a couple of days when we would have needed to use the car. Overall likable car.

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  Unstoppable - 1996 Dodge Dakota
  By kile95 - February 5 - 10:05 pm

  My dad bought this truck for 500$ in 2004. He daily drove it everyday to Orlando and back loading it with miles. When I got my liscence in 2011 he gave it to me. By the time he gave it to me the truck had 380k miles on it. 380k!!. I daily drove it to school and back until April 2013. When I got rid of it, it had 420k miles on and still going strong. Oh and the whole time me and my dad owned it the only things we did to it was change a clutch and a throttle positioning sensor!! We took great care of the truck though. Oil change every 3k miles. But I gave the truck to my uncle and its his daily driver to this day. He just drove it to Michigan and back twice. Starts right up 1st time every time

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  Not impressed... - 2014 Dodge Durango
  By zoomzoomn - February 4 - 9:07 am

  We bought our Durango at the end of November. A week later the transmission cooler lines popped off while I was 2 hours from home leaving me stranded in an intersection. It took almost 2 weeks to get the car back at which time we found the underside still covered in ATF! Since then we have had problems with the following: alignment off, trash in paint, sunroof misadjusted, keyless entry memory inop, autoclimate malfunctions, audio system malfunctions and now the left rear window will not raise back up and appears to be off track. This is the worst "new car" that I have ever bought. We had planned to keep it for at least 6 years, but not too sure that will happen. Extremely disappointed!!!

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  Pros vs Cons - 2001 Dodge Dakota
  By jhtet101 - February 4 - 9:05 am

  My spouse and I have own ours since 2009: Pros: - Since we purchased a quad cab: Carries family and big items at the same time not a lot of trips - Super comfortable - great back up car - powerful - sturdy frame Cons: - Since owning it, we have fixed both front calibers (I believe driver side twice within wk apart), all the window gears more than one time, some of hydraulic metal lines (almost caught on fire), now has a burning smell again, also our fuel gauge never worked correctly - we dont get 19 highway miles or 16 city miles, we get maybe 8, about 54 miles per a tank. Thought we have fixed somethings multiple times, I do still like it.

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  I liked my Nitro a lot ... LIKED it a lot - 2011 Dodge Nitro
  By northcoast19 - February 3 - 7:46 pm

  I bought a 2011 Dodge Nitro Heat 3.7 4x4 in January of 2011, and traded it in for a 2014 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk in March of 2014. Over that time, I put $65,000 miles on the Nitro as I drove it extensively for work. I never had a single problem with the vehicle and never had it in the shop other than routine maintenance. The Nitro was a cool SUV, but it was from a past decade. It just felt like a vehicle designed in the 90s that they had stored away and rolled out in the 2000s. The shifting was horrendously rough to the point where it felt like I ran something over when it would shift during acceleration. There was no 4 wheel low, and the 20" rims on a 4x4 SUV was a joke.

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  Good car for a Good price - 2013 Dodge Dart
  By jbrown33 - February 3 - 5:42 pm

  This was my first brand new car and I must say I am rather pleased at how it has held up in the past year. I read so many bad reviews about this car but i must say i have very little to no issues and ive put the poor thing through the ringer in the past year adding 45000km. I lived in northern mb for my first winter with the car and was a little concerned about how it would hold up in -40C weather but it did great. I never had trouble starting it. The only issue i had was hose claps kept cracking in the cold causing me to leak coolant, which resulted in my engine over heating but thats about it. I love the way the car drives and handles it has such a solid feel to it, not cheap or rattly

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  2015 Dodge Journey Crossroad - 2015 Dodge Journey
  By mikey9515 - January 28 - 1:42 pm

  I recently purchased a 2015 Journey Crossroad AWD 6cyl. I was interested in an SUV that also featured the AWD ability as I live in an area with frequent snow fall. I was initially impressed with the response and ability of the vehicle to handle minor snow conditions, 3 inches or less. However, during a recent snowfall where 6 inches of snow fell in a relatively short period of time, the vehicle turn out to be less than sufficient. The combination of AWD, Electronic Stability, and Braking brought the car to an almost standstill. I had to get hard on the gas to make any progress, and when I switched off stability control, the tires just spun, first front then back and vice versa, terrible.

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  Great used car value - 2007 Dodge Durango
  By mikey281 - January 26 - 9:39 pm

  The low resale value of these cars can be a real advantage when buying used and planning to keep it for a long time. I have had my Durango Adventurer edition now for about a month and in that time Ive put on about 2000 miles. The ride is smooth and quiet. The 4wd system worked well for driving on the beach to go fishing. I havent had it long enough to know reliability but with most modern cars if you keep them up it should last 150k miles ++ Overall, especially for the price paid I am very happy with this vehicle.