AUTOS: The New Dodge

Automen, who have been talking of heavy competition next year, got the first real taste of what is to come. Putting the 1953 Dodge on display last week, President William C. Newberg announced that Dodge had spent $65 million to turn out a car “with everything new except the tire size.” Newberg had another pleasant surprise: while prices of two models were raised slightly, four of the ten were cut from 53¢ to $258 under the 1952 line.

In its new cars, Dodge has rounded off the old boxy body, while increasing seating and window space and retaining the “hat-room” that Chrysler Corp.’s Chairman K. T. Keller has always demanded. The new car has a new spring suspension system to cut sway on curves, a shorter wheelbase for greater maneuverability and a new system to make steering easier.

Much of the $65 million in development costs was spent on a modernized assembly line for a new V-8 engine which will power half of Dodge’s ten 1953 models. The new engine, a smaller version of Chrysler’s “Firedome,” has 140 h.p. (v. 103 h.p. in the old six-cylinder engine), will push the car up to around 100 m.p.h. Bill Newberg, who boosted Dodge from eighth to sixth place last year, is raising 1953 production schedules by 25%, to 312,000 cars. Said he: “We’ll be knocking on the sales door right behind the first three.”