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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  Loving It for The Most Part - 2009 Dodge Journey
  By Diane - September 3 - 7:56 pm

  It is making a strange baffling noise that is coming from the exhaust system. My dealer-ship has tried its best to fix problem, now need to wait for Dodge to fix. Noise gets on your nerves at time. Radio should be where ac/heat unit located, more detail on dash and interior.

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  Love it - 2006 Dodge Charger
  By will57 - September 3 - 7:23 am

  I just bought my Charger and love it. It handles like a dream and power....WOW all you will need. The new 2006 Charger outranks any 6 cylinder import by far. Great overall vehicle and would recommend it to anyone who wants a quilty car for a good price.

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  Love this car! - 2009 Dodge Journey
  By Whitney - September 3 - 6:43 am

  My husband and I purchased this car in April of 08. We LOVE it. Its our first car of our own and we feel we have made a wonderful choice. Its safe with the curtain air bags in the back. The seats are very comfortable. I love the fact that all the seats will fold down to put large objects in the car. The back doors opening 90 degrees make it much easier to get our daughter in and out of the car. I love all the storage. I can keep diapers and toys in the car for our daughter without having to see them 24/7. I love the style of this car. Im a young mom and I get the features of a mini van without the look. My husbands mother loved ours so much 2 weeks later she got herself one! Great Car!

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  Excellent car - 2004 Dodge Stratus
  By lonasindi - September 3 - 2:00 am

  Ive had my car for a few months, and its been a blast. Its reasonably quick and handles very well with the sport supsension package. I did have a mishap with getting my oil changed. The technician must have forgotten to put more oil in. The exterior styling is very nice, and the interior has clean lines and is very comfortable. The back seats are big enough to seat adults. The white gauges are very sporty. The engine is a little whiny sounding, but its not too bad. Shifts are smooth and consistent. Not a bad performer.

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  The Best - 2004 Dodge Dakota
  By MSLUVMEDEKODA - September 3 - 2:00 am

  This vehicle is everything I needed as far as Comfort, Performance, Fuel, Quality, reliability and space for what I needed. I love the handling and design. There isnt anything I would change. As usual.. Dodge has just what I needed when I needed it. One word sum= FAN-TAS-TIC

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  Dodge did a Great Job on this SUV! - 2007 Dodge Nitro
  By Boattech - September 2 - 1:50 pm

  This vehicle has all the features I needed at reasonable price. It can tow up to 5,000 Lbs; I can switch from 2WDt o 4WD "on the fly"! Has ample storage, roomy seating. Best of all it looks amazing! The other vehicles I tested looked too common. The fuel mileage is 16 MPG but I expect this to improve as the engine breaks in as it has only 1,000 Miles on it.

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  Dodge surprise of the century - 2005 Dodge Neon
  By Dodger - September 2 - 12:23 am

  Excellent power, serious fun to drive. You cant find anything better than this unless you spend $10k more and move up to the $30k range to get a Evo or STI. I simply cant think of a car under $30k that can beat the performance of SRT-4. If you are tight on cash and want serious performance, this is your choice. If you are loaded and dont want to park your M3 around the train station every morning, SRT-4 is the only car that you can enjoy driving (and the thrill) and wont feel too bad to find a scratch on it after you return from work.

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  Drivers door design - 2005 Dodge Caravan
  By Jack Fremont - August 31 - 2:00 am

  The trim panel on the drivers door protrudes about 2-3 inches into interior of drivers side. As a result there is no even or smooth space to rest your left leg. You constantly hit this small protrusion. I drove 100 miles and my leg was very sore. I had a 1999 Caravan that had the switches higher on the panel. As a result we had a nice smooth door. Very poor inside design--should have been caught

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  dealer special....JUNK.!!!!!! - 2009 Dodge Journey
  By BAD Journey - August 30 - 6:50 am

  This car has been nothing but a headache since a month after we purchased it. It had an axel seal to bust causing oil to leak on the exhaust, the transmission is always shifting gears, sometimes it wont shift down when going up hills, then when it does shift down it wont shift back up, it down shifts to low gear while in cruise control going 70 mph on the interstate & almost got us hit,Chrysler says thats the way the car is designed to work, power steering whins all the time, Chrysler says that is normal also. Any problem that this car has Chrysler says it is normal so it doesnt do any good to call them with your problems. All i can say is LEMON, this car should have been YELLOW.

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  1996 Intrepid - 1996 Dodge Intrepid
  By Jym Sparks - August 29 - 2:00 am

  Good all around car. Good in snow and ice. Very dependable with just general up keep. Have had some problems keeping the brakes in check and have replaced them multiple times. It seems to be alright now. Also the engine is loud when you jump on it.