Dodge was founded in 1914 and is based out of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge manufactures commercial trucks, passenger vehicles, muscle cars, SUVs, pick up trucks and sports cars. Dodge is manufactured in over 60 countries worldwide. The company was originally founded in 1900 by the Dodge brothers as the Dodge Brothers Company to supply parts to the growing automotive industry in Michigan. Dodge did not begin manufacturing their own vehicles until 1914. Dodge became a part of the Chrysler Corporation in 1928, was part of the DaimlerChrysler merger from 1998-2007 and is now part of the new Chrysler LLC.

Horace and John Dodge were the brothers responsible for the founding of the Dodge Company in 1900. Their business produced chassis and engines for the growing automotive market in the Michigan area before they released their first vehicle in 1914. Their first model was the Dodge Model 30, somewhat of a takeoff from the Ford Model T. Dodge, like many other vehicle manufacturers within the country, produced models for military use. The first time that Dodge’s vehicles were used by the United States military was when the United States sent troops into Mexico on the Mexican Expedition which was in search of Pancho Villa.

Dodge, prior to the war years in the United States, produced many luxury liner models such as the D11 4-door sedan. In the 1950s and 1960s Dodge began producing more and more coupes and sedans. A couple of their models were the Dodge Coronet 440 sedan of 1966 and the 1977 Dodge Diplomat sedan. Once Dodge became part of the Daimler Chrysler merger in 1998, their design and success took off at an even higher level.

Once the merger took place the company began reworking the designs of many of its successful models to make them more attractive to the customer. Those models that Dodge redesigned were the Intrepid, the Stratus and the Neon.

Aside from their passenger vehicles, Dodge has become widely popular with their pick up trucks, SUVs, commercial vehicles and vans. Their pick up trucks have become the backbone of the company and are most known for their durable pick ups. Dodge’s first civilian pick up truck was the Power Wagon, which was released shortly after the conclusion of World War II. The Dodge Dakota and the Dodge Ram trucks are two of their most popular pick up trucks on the market today.

Throughout their history, Dodge has gone through a handful of name changes, which means they have also gone through a handful of logo changes. Their first logo was a circular emblem with the letters D and B intertwined for Dodge Brothers. The logo Dodge used until the mid 1990s was the pent-a-star, which is a pentagon with its five points and a star in the middle. Their current logo is the Dodge Ram head. It appears on all of their models except for the Dodge Viper. The ram head is also part of the company’s slogan which is, “Grab life by the horns.”

Starting in 2010, Nissan will start producing light commercial and medium-duty trucks in its Canton, Mississippi, plant. The move is a bold statement in the face of the declining truck industry, but Nissan North America’s vice president of product planning Larry Dominique is confident on Nissan’s entry strategy: “The beauty of light commercial vehicles is that there are a very limited number of players. For us, that equals a good market opportunity.” The commercial vehicles are used by up-fitters to produce mack trucks, dump trucks, tow trucks, large school buses, U-Haul-like cargo carriers, cab-over-engine trucks, and other vehicles.

Nissan’s commercial vehicles will compete with the likes of the Ford commercial trucks (E-series), Chevy Express, Dodge Sprinter, and other light- and medium-duty trucks. In 2007, Dodge, Ford, Chevy, and GMC sold 325,744 full-size vans, a drop of 8.4 percent from their 2006 sales.

Dominique states that Nissan’s light commercial vehicles will range from “full-size vans, small vans, different pickup truck variations, ambulances. It could be buses in the future.” Because the Canton plant currently produces the Nissan Titan pickup truck, Nissan will have Chrysler LLC develop and assemble the next-generation Titan. Once production of Nissan’s new commercial vehicles begin, Nissan and other interested dealers will be signed up to sell the vehicles within the next four months.

Dominique says that Nissan light commercial truck sales are strong in Japan and Europe and are growing in China. In Japan and Europe, the commercial vehicles are branded the Atlas and Atleon. With a strong base out of Japan and Europe, “the U.S. is one of the last untapped markets for Nissan,” according to Dominique.

With the current drop in new pickup truck sales and the steadily north moving gas prices finding and buying a used pickup truck for sale has never been easier for you. All makes, models, and versions of used pickup trucks have suddenly glutted the market for second-hand trucks.

So, you have a wide choice of pickups like Ford trucks, GMC trucks, Chevrolet Trucks, Dodge trucks etc to choose from and you can even effectively bargain the amount that you need to pay for it. All in all it has now become a buyer’s market, whereas not so long ago it was entirely in favor of the sellers.

It would seem to you as if the sellers are simply jettisoning their pickup trucks at whatever costs they are able to sell them at. However, they all have good enough reasons to do that. Moreover, different categories of Americans have different reasons for putting up their used pickup truck for sale.

Extremely rich Americans have resorted to selling off their first hand pickup truck simply to buy the latest new pickup truck that they have taken a fancy to. Skyrocketing gas prices can never seem to have an effect on them and neither does the amount of money they get back as the sale value. They are too rich to harp on such minor matters. They do not even baulk at having to sell their used pickup trucks at hefty discounts.

For some of the gas price conscious first hand pickup truck owners, selling is a decision they have taken because they never actually needed a pickup truck. They had bought pickup trucks because they thought these vehicles can potentially serve multiple needs. They used their pickup trucks mainly as a car, but earlier they could afford the high amount of gas the vehicles consumed because gas prices were then much lower.

Now that they have factored in the current gas price increases, they find they can no longer afford to use the gas guzzling pickup trucks. They have deduced that in the current situation, shifting to a car would cut down on gas costs and not take away anything from a usage point of view. This category of sellers can also be coaxed by you into selling at substantial discounts.

The other category of gas price conscious first hand pickup truck owners comprise those who actually used their trucks mainly as a pickup rather than as a car. However, gas prices having reached new highs, they are constrained to sell off their trucks even at a discount, because they can no longer afford to pay the cost of the fuel.

However the despondency in the new pickup truck sales together with the high gas consumption costs should make you, as a buyer of a used pickup truck for sale, wary of gas guzzlers. You need to focus your purchase on the really fuel efficient models.

Largest manufacturers in Western Europe

1 Daimler AG (Mercedes-Benz,Freightliner,Sterling,Unimog,Western Star,Fuso)
2 Volvo (Volvo,Mack,Renault,UD Nissan Diesel)
3 PACCAR (DAF Trucks,Kenworth,Peterbilt,Leyland Trucks)
4 Navistar International Corporation (International,Workhorse

Western European manufacturers

* Acmat (France)
* Alexander Dennis (UK)
* BMC (Turkey)
* Carmichael (UK)
* DAF Trucks (Netherlands)

Eastern European manufacturers

* Fabrika Automobila Priboj (Serbia)
* Kamaz (Russia)
* KrAZ (Ukrania)
* MAZ (Belarus)
* Roman (Romania)

A truck stop in Ladakh, India

* Ashok Leyland (India)
* BMC
* Hino Motors
* Mahindra and Mahindra
* TATA Motors

South America

* Chevrolet(commercial vehicules for the Colombian market only)
* Ford Truck(Brasil)(cargo line)
* Mack Trucks
* Volvo Trucks(Brasil)
* Volkswagen Truck & Bus(Brasil)

North America

* Autocar(USA)
* Chevrolet
* Dodge
* E-One
* Freightliner LLC
* Ford
* GMC
* Kenworth
* Mack Trucks
* International
* Ottawa (Truck)
* Peterbilt
* Volvo Trucks (different models for U.S. market)

Around the roadways of our country, it seems that “bigger is better” is a common theme.  Toyota Truck is a truck that raises the competitive bar. It’s also interesting to note that this affinity for large vehicles like Ottawa 30 Commercial, International 1654 Commercial, Kenworth T800 Commercial, etc is occurring not only in urban areas, but also in areas that are laden with conservationists and environmentalists who would normally see them as disadvantageous because of their potential harm on the environment.  Higher elevation areas are particularly flooded with larger trucks, because of the power that they provide in steep, snowy and icy areas. Large populations of people who oppose emissions for environmental purposes are the same areas where outdoor recreation is prevalent. Additionally, they tend to offer more safety — due to their size — than their smaller, more fragile counter parts

Despite rising diesel prices and fears across the nation of emissions causing environmental issues, it seems that just as many, if not more people are buying and driving large Used Commercial trucks. But the general consensus is that larger vehicles can better withstand accidents and therefore are more likely to protect the occupants within. Many people would also argue that larger commercial truck present more versatility than smaller ones. A larger vehicle allows for day-to-day transportation as well as the versatility to act as an emergency vehicle of sorts when more labor intensive tasks become necessary, the idea being that large vehicles can do anything that smaller ones can do, but smaller ones can’t necessarily do everything that large ones can. Whether or not you endorse or despise the “bigger is better” notion, it is becoming obvious that large vehicles are not going anywhere and that, despite absurd prices in gasoline and potential detriment to our environment and Trucks are going to continue their influence as a major part of our roadway traffic. Ford , Chevrolet and Dodge are presenting new attractive models; it is really difficult to find the truck.

Diesel Performance Truck :

Diesel performance truck are another accessory upgrade that is most commonly completed on a diesel engine. One of the benefits of adding a diesel performance truck is the truck can provide up to a 35% increase in torque and an additional 150 horsepower. It can also increase fuel mileage by about 10%. Another added benefit of installing a diesel performance truck is that you will not have to reprogram the truck’s main computer chip. You can just install the performance module in any areas where there is a gap between the computer and fuel injection.

Cold Air Intake Systems :

Upgrading the cold air intake system is another way to get great diesel performance out of your diesel truck. The cold air intake is sealed away from hot engine air and it is used to bring down the temperature of the air going into a diesel engine. The main benefit of installing a cold air intake is an increase of the power of the internal-combustion engine and with the higher percentage of fuel being burned the better it is for fuel economy.

Often times, people decide to purchase a large truck to haul very heavy loads. If that is not your intention, and you’d like to purchase a truck to drive more like a car, you may want a gasoline engine.
There are three main benefits to this:

Gas engines run smoother
Fuel is easier to find
Gas engines start easier in cold weather

If, however, your intent is to use truck for towing, you may want to consider a diesel engine. The three main benefits to this are:

Good fuel economy
High mileage
Better for towing

The price of a diesel truck is very high, but it very well may be worth it. They have many benefits, and could very well save you a good deal of money in the end. Benefits vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. You can compare these benefits below:

Ford

In 1994, Ford introduced its international engineered power stroke diesel. This pushed the 3/4 ton and 1 ton truck market to where it is today. Before this, the big one inch gasoline engines made these poorly built diesels barely considerable. Over 70% of super duty Fords were sold with the optional 7.3L V-8 diesel engine from 1994-2002. Because of this engine, Ford became one of the leaders in diesel trucks.

Dodge

In 2002, Ram didn’t have enough power with the 245 HP 9.5L, so Dodge promised more powerful engines for the 2500/3500 platform, and they definitely followed through on their promise: the 2500 and 3500 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty trucks are the newest ¾ and 1 ton trucks on the road.

The new base engine is the 5.7L gasoline V-8, which revives the well-known, historical Hemi name, as it is the most powerful engine of the group at 345 HP.

Chevrolet/GMC:

Coming standard with GM’s 6.0L gas engine V-8 are the GMC 2500/3500 twins Silverado HD and Sierra HD. The engine is ideal for ¾ ton trucks where towing isn’t a concern. Based on Chevrolet’s venerable big block engine are the upgrades that start with the 8.1 gas V-8.