>Believe it or not I just read that the first F*ord cars had Dodge Engines!
Absolutely correct. Not all, but many early (nineteen-teens) Fords had
engines made by the Dodge Brothers. There were several other machine shops
supplying engines too. Ford standardized the design, then farmed out the
machine work and competed the contracts...
Later, Ford built his end-to-end car factories, and began to take the
engine manufacture under his own roofs. The Dodge Brothers (and many others)
started making their own cars. A great many of the small manufacturers
that assmbled became GM were also previously Ford suppliers.
Walter P. Chrysler worked for Ford, then went his own way, and picked the
cream of the crop of Ford's suppliers. Chrysler's car company was actually
smaller than the Dodge Bros. when he bought them out, but WPC had the
financiers behind him (and the managerial skill).
Jim
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes." -- Proust
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