In 1904, John Stoddard decided to exit the agricultural implement business from which he had earned his fortune and instead to manufacture high quality automobiles for the emerging market in the United States.

The company adopted a strategy of building the highest quality motor cars with powerful engines.

In 1909, a two-seater Stoddard-Dayton won the first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, averaging 57.3 miles per hour (92.2 km/h).

By 1911, Stoddard-Dayton offered twenty models with four different engines—limousines, landaulets, coupes, touring, torpedoes, roadsters, trucks, taxicabs, delivery wagons.

The assets of the Dayton Motor Car Company were purchased by the reorganized Maxwell where parts were manufactured for assembly at New Castle, Indiana and later Detroit, Michigan.

Stoddard-Dayton was slow to react to the emergence of a mass market and maintained a high-quality strategy after automobiles ceased to be exclusively rich men's status symbols.

Stoddard-Dayton continued to expand model offerings at all price points, but never changed fundamental manufacturing methods.

It was permanently attached to the radiator so that it could not be lost or stolen and could be opened with a flip of the locking lever, even when the engine was hot.