100 years of Dodge

The Dodge Brothers medallion.

As of November of this year, Dodge is 100 years old.
The November issue of my Hemmings Classic Car magazine is making a big thing of it, a special commemorative issue.
Seems not too long ago Chevrolet made 100 years, and Classic car celebrated it. But not as much as this.
Perhaps they’re trying to correct their mistake, although Dodge was pretty important.
Dodge is about the only identifiable Chrysler brand remaining.
The Chrysler Corporation of my youth is gone.
That was when Chrysler was marketing competition for every GM make; five marques.
Plymouth competed with Chevrolet and Ford, Dodge more-or-less with Pontiac, and even Oldsmobile and Buick, Desoto competed with Oldsmobile and Buick, as did Chrysler.
It could be said Chrysler was trying to match Cadillac, but then Chrysler fielded Imperial, at first an offshoot of Chrysler.
But then Chrysler Corporation made Imperial standalone to compete with Cadillac.
It didn’t work. Imperial lasted a little while, but tanked.
Desoto’s last model was 1960, and now even Plymouth is gone, a victim of Chrysler’s bail-out.
There are Chrysler products being made, but I don’t see them trumpeted as Chryslers. —Not as much as Dodge products.
And now Jeep is a Chrysler product, and is a smashing success.
Go back far enough and Jeep was a Willys (“will-is”) product.
Then it was bought out by American Motors, and Chrysler bought Jeep when American Motors tanked.
To me, the new Chrysler Jeeps can’t compare to even the American Motors Jeeps, which although larger, were still Jeeps.
I can’t picture Eisenhower or Patton parading in a Chrysler Jeep. They’re way too big. Where’s the Jeep?
Dodge goes back before Chrysler Corporation. At first it was Dodge Brothers (there were two).
In fact, Dodge Brothers was instrumental in Old Henry’s Model-T Ford.
But then Old Henry decided to expand his Rouge plant, which would have cut out Dodge Brothers as a supplier.
So Dodge Brothers decided to make their own car.
That was 1914.
And most importantly, the new Dodge was the first all-steel car, pioneered with Budd Company of Philadelphia.
But Walter P. Chrysler needed the manufacturing facilities Dodge Brothers had.
So Dodge Brothers became part of Walter P.’s mighty Chrysler Corporation.
And now about the only brand left of Chrysler Corporation is Dodge.
Desoto, Imperial, and even Plymouth are gone.
And Chrysler seems to be a withering brand. A lot of cars carry the Chrysler logo, but don’t seem to be marketed as Chryslers.
I haven’t seen a Chrysler dealership in years — not too long ago it was Chrysler/Plymouth.
I bet I could find a Jeep dealership. Even Dodge lost its dealership identity, or so it seems. Quite often I see Dodge and Chryslers cars on the same lot.
I only have one Dodge-story to relate.
It’s about my Uncle Ricci (“Rich-EEE”), who went through various jobs, all of which seemed to involve driving, often trucks.
His last job was as chauffeur for the Pew family (“pyooo”) west of Philadelphia. Sun Oil is Pew.
Mr. Pew had many cars, including a Rolls-Royce and Cadillac limo.
My Uncle Ricci was his chauffeur.
Mr. Pew also had a Pontiac he used to commute — with Uncle Ricci driving. It was about ’51 or ’52.
What Uncle Ricci had was a postwar Dodge, ’47 or ’48. He thought the world if it, and kept it up into the ‘60s.


A postwar Dodge sedan, much like my Uncle Ricci’s car.

I don’t know what attracted Uncle Ricci, but as far as I know the postwar Dodges were stone-reliable. Just about everything else had the reputation of breaking-down.
A postwar Dodge was a turkey, but you could depend on it.
And there would be my Uncle Ricci driving it, looking majestic and chauffeurial.
(And he was usually wearing a hat. Chrysler chairman K.T. Keller desired all his cars have enough ceiling-clearance to allow hat-wearing.)
I bet my Uncle Ricci enjoyed that Dodge more than Pew’s Rolls-Royce or Cadillac.

• “Old Henry” is Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company.