Dodge Brothers
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Dodge Brothers
“Dodge cars continued to rank second place in American sales in 1920. But that year, tragedy struck as John Dodge was felled by pneumonia in January. His brother Horace then died of cirrhosis in December of the same year (reportedly out of grief at the loss of his brother, with whom he was very close). The Dodge Brothers Company fell into the hands of the brothers' widows, who promoted long-time employee Frederick Haynes to the company presidency. During this time, the Model 30 was evolved to become the new Series 116 (though it retained the same basic construction and engineering features). Dodge Brothers emerged as a leading builder of light trucks. They also entered into a production agreement whereby they produced trucks marketed as Graham Brothers by the men who would later produce Graham and Graham-Paige automobiles. Stagnation in development was becoming apparent, however, and the public responded by dropping Dodge to fifth place in the industry by 1925. That year, the Dodge Brothers Company was sold by the widows to the well-known investment group Dillon, Read and Company for no less than US$146 million (at the time, the largest cash transaction in history). Dillon, Read quickly installed one of their own men at the company, one E.G. Wilmer, who set about trying to keep the firm on an even keel. Changes to the car, save for superficial things like trim levels and colors, remained minimal until 1927, when the new senior six-cylinder line was introduced. The former four-cylinder line was kept on, but renamed the Fast Four line until it was dropped in favor of two lighter six-cylinder models (the Standard Six and Victory Six) for 1928. Despite all this, Dodge’s sales had already dropped to seventh place in the industry by 1927, and Dillon, Read began looking for someone to take over the company on a more permanent basis.” ---------------------------------------------
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