Dodge plans 100th anniversary

LOS ANGELES -- Dodge's 100th anniversary next year presents a convenient marketing opportunity -- a chance to regain some of the luster and direction that was lost when the Ram pickup and Viper were shifted to other Chrysler Group brands.

Dodge is planning special limited-edition models across its seven-vehicle lineup in 2014, but Dodge boss Tim Kuniskis said he won't reveal details until the vehicles are ready to be launched.

"We're not talking to anybody until we actually do something," he said. "Until we actually do it, it's just words."

Kuniskis, who took over as head of Dodge in April, plans to use brothers John and Horace Dodge, who founded the company, to position Dodge as "something different," focusing on power and technology.

And even though the anniversary is still a year away, Dodge has made its first move in that direction. The 2.4-liter Tigershark 4-cylinder will be the standard engine on all but the base-model Dodge Dart, replacing the 2.0-liter I-4.

As an example of keeping Dodge different, Kuniskis cited the Charger, with its distinctive styling and racetrack-style LED rear lighting.

"On a spreadsheet, the Dodge Charger is the same full-sized four-door sedan as a Toyota Avalon, as a Ford Taurus, as a Chevy Impala," he said. "Psychologically, it's not even in the same ballpark as those cars."

The Dodge brothers were skilled machinists, bicycle makers and inventors who grew rich making parts for several automotive pioneers, including Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford.

They had parlayed an early 10 percent stake in Ford Motor Co. into a small fortune but later formed their own car company. On Nov. 14, 1914, the first Dodge car -- a five-seat touring sedan later nicknamed "Old Betsy" -- rolled off their assembly line in metro Detroit.

The new company produced just 249 cars in 1914, but the next year, Dodge made 45,053. Both brothers died in 1920, in separate circumstances. At the time their company was the fourth-largest automaker in the United States, trailing only Ford, Chevrolet and Buick. By 1928, Dodge was losing market share and was bought from a New York investment firm by Walter P. Chrysler and his Chrysler Corp.

"They were only alive for the first five years of the company," Kuniskis said, "and yet today, the company is still a reflection of who they were and what their personalities were. That really speaks volumes about how big of a deal these guys were."

The 2014 centenary comes at an opportune time for Dodge, which lost it full-sized pickup to the Ram brand in 2009 and its Viper halo car to the SRT brand in 2012. There have even been rumors that Chrysler might shut down Dodge and move its remaining vehicles to other nameplates. That talk picked up momentum when Chrysler released an updated product map earlier this year that showed no new vehicles in the lineup until at least 2015.

Kuniskis, who headed Chrysler-brand marketing before salvaging the relaunch of the Fiat brand in North America in 2011, called talk of shutting down Dodge "crazy." Dodge is the only Chrysler brand that sells vehicles only in North America.

"Every single product we have is up double digits," he said. "Every single vehicle we have is a performer, and we're going to sell over 600,000 cars this year. That's pretty significant."

Kuniskis, 46, said he feels at home running Dodge. He recently finished a full restoration of a 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T that he bought when he moved back to Michigan a few years ago. The classic muscle car had been owned by three previous Chrysler employees, and he drives it when not using his 2013 Challenger to demonstrate just how far Dodge has come over the past 42 years.

He said the difference between the two Challengers is the reason he doesn't want to change Dodge, just refocus it.

"It's a 100-year-old brand that really, while it's changed over time, it's very true to what it's always been," Kuniskis said. "If you look at what we have, from muscle cars to MPVs, we offer you performance and technology, but with an attitude and personality that's going to make your car seem different."