It's impossible to imagine our modern world without cars. Despite the fact that a car, in general, is just a pile of metal and a set of parts, no one thinks of it like that. Many people believe that a car possesses a soul. It's like a full-fledged family member. And some people prioritize a personal car above themselves, and even family. Pretty often, we only have to look at the car to understand everything about its owner. We don't even have to converse, everything goes without saying. And, of course, not all cars are created equal. If you drive a Renault Logan, you would hardly be allowed to pass other cars as freely as an owner of a Geländewagen. Although, some old, rusty Geländewagen would cost just as much a new Logan. But still, they would let it pass by more often. I wonder, could it be the case that a car might be a real problem for its owner? I'm not talking about the classic story where your DSG breaks for the second time in a week. Could the owner be gradually beaten down for having a car of the wrong brand? Could someone even kill the man who choses his car incorrectly? It sounds absolutely crazy. Today, if you'd come for a Peugeot club meeting and began yelling that a Peugeot was a worthless waste of a vehicle, the worst consequence would be beauty bags thrown at you. Believe me, I know. However, the problem is real. There were examples in human history. And today, from this video, you will know how and why the cult surrounding the car was born; how car makers shot their workers down, and the workers demolished their manufactures; how one worker from the Ford factory arrived here, to the USSR, and how that trip changed the course of car history; What people were willing to do when an empire built on cars was crashing. You will witness a detailed, thorough and eventful story of Detroit, the main city of the car industry. Enjoy! When Detroit was originally founded, no one could predict anything about it becoming a car empire, there was never a hint of such an ambition. First of all, Detroit belonged to Canada and was originally a trading settlement. Just a piece of land enclosed by a fence; and the purpose of that settlement was trading fur skins with Native American Indians. Fur skins are fur wheel covers. The Natives couldn't drive without them. Every Native had to have them. And before the XIX century, there was only about a thousand ethnic europeans in the area. The Black population, slaves and the Natives were not regarded as substantial men, hence we only have information about the white population. One thousand people lived there, more or less. When we speak about that period, in context it was was quite a large settlement. But still only a settlement. It was a camp with a fence. And at some point, that village burned down in 1805. And the property development began. They built shipyards and the first manufactures. That's what Detroit looked like a hundred years later, in 1905. But it would start to become more significant on August 5, 1899. That day was the day when DAC was founded. Detroit Automobile Company. That was the first US car company in Detroit. It was founded by the infamous Henry Ford. Suddenly. Chapter I. Henry Ford The Ford wasn't the first of Henry's companies. He gathered 12 investors, and DAC was the first car company he founded. Do you remember that famous legend where Ford, in his barn, put together some wagon with some engine, that was before he opened DAC. Ford had many ideas, but he didn't have any money. He was just a regular mechanic. And with this wagon, he convinced 12 investors, the mayor of the town included, to invest 86,000 dollars in him. If we talk about modern money, it's 2.6 million usd. A significant amount of money, for sure. And the focus of the DAC activities was a vehicle for delivery men. It was heavy, slow, uncomfortable, hard to build. That idea was void from the start. There were only 12 of them ever produced, the money was wasted. Ford who was very pleased regardless, left the company and founded his own Ford company in 1903. A year later, in 1904, he founded the Ford Piquette Plant that was the first full-fledged car factory in Detroit. Ford is the first element in our diagram. It's the first foundation of Detroit's future. The next moment was in 1904. A fellow named William Krapo Durant bought a huge chunk of Buick shares. Chapter II. William Durant Buick had already existed by that time. It was a successful brand, in general. It wasn't located in Detroit but it was a successful car company. Durant wasn't as famous as Henry Ford. Although, a few years later, he created a brand you definitely heard about. It was such a small, low-profile company named General Motors. Durant wasn't an inventor, he was an entrepreneur, pure and simple. He was trying to sell things since he was a kid: cigarettes, papers, shoes. Then, it came to real estate. And so, a result of his upbringing was the fact that, in 1886, he had his own factory which produced running gear for bullock carts. He produced wagon wheels, so to speak. And actually, his mindset predetermined all the way of General Motors development, and of whole the car industry. Perhaps, I will say something not so obvious to you, but GM has never been a car manufacturer. GM is just a managing company. And who were those car makers? Chevrolet, Opel, GMC, Cadillac, the very same Buick. GM was just an office with managers. When Durant began to manage the Buick, the company was doing poorly. They were just producing something within some scope, and they were not highly regarded. But within 4 years, Durant made Buick to an industry leader, and in 1908, Buick was a bestseller. Although, Ford Model T was also born in 1908, it didn't manage to move his competitor yet. The main difference between Durant's and Ford's models of how they would run their businesses was the following; Ford placed all his bets on one model, and Durant decided that each manufacturer had to have a wide range of products. It had to be like that so that each customer could find something fitting for them. In 1900s, that wasn't common practice. Actually, they were both right in their own way. Ford's legacy is the conveyor belt method of car manufacturing, and the fact that all manufacturers put their cars together like this. And Durant's legacy was the business model. The most modern companies and dealers work by the patterns which were invented by Durant. That's why he is just as significant for car industry as Henry Ford himself. And so, it was 1908. Buick was sitting pretty. Durant founded the managing company General Motors. He gave all his shares and all the control to this company, invited a bunch of investors and began to buy everything that moves and everything he saw. Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Oakland - our modern Pontiac, Rapid Motor Vehicle - our modern GMC Truck. Beside car manufacturers, GM began to buy all manufacturers of components and everything that was somehow connected to the car industry. They even almost bought Ford at that time, in 1908-1909. But investors didn't approve the deal. They thought it would be risky to be monopolists in every corner. They could have some problems with government regulations etc, and so they decided that Ford may live peacefully and put together his cars. But those politics didn't earn huge profit. GM had less sales than Ford. Shareholders and investors wanted their dividends for invested money. But Durant was spending all the profit by buying more and more new companies. That's why shareholders and investors were festering resentment. At some point, they gathered, they pondered, and they bought all Durant's shares and threw him out of the company in 1910. But Durant wasn't upset; he took the moustached racer Louis Chevrolet to found - oh my God, how unexpected! - Chevrolet. And in this company, they decided to focus on the public sector, on inexpensive cars of high quality to move into Ford Model T's consumer section. And they made it. Chevrolet began to evolve very fast by taking market sectors for itself, and Durant was sitting pretty, again. While being a clever wheeler-dealer, he began to change Chevrolet's shares for those of GM. He sold them here, he bought them there - and there he was, on the GM board again. Plus, he borrowed money from investors, bought out everything that was left in GM, and, by using every piece of the company’s money, he began to buy everything he could, systematically. In 1920, the car sales fell down significantly, and if you'd attack the market like Durant, it could lethally threaten the company. Suddenly, you could have some huge financial holes, something would absorb something, and that would be it. All investors gathered once again, pondered once again, did the math - and they decided that they didn't need Durant, again, and they threw him out of the company for good. But GM still exists today, it had become the second pivotal part, in the foundation of Detroit's future. And so it appears on our list here. All successful men of that time shared common curiosity and a drive for new knowledge. Of course, the world was different 100 years ago. Ford, Durant and other history personas didn't have the Internet, at least. It was an additional bump on the way to new knowledge. In order to learn something, you had to talk to people. Live. To speak with your mouth, to discuss the time of your meetings, to come to them and talk to people. Live! But today, thanks to the Internet, everything is much easier. It's enough to just be willing to learn together with Skillbox online university. Yes, it's another divine segue to integration. In November, there will be an online conference in Skillbox about 3 popular digital professions: Web Design, Internet Marketing, and Programming. Experts from popular areas will explain, and the most important thing, to show you by examples of specific cases how you could work in those professions. If you intend to go to college, or if you already have a degree but you aren't sure in the course of your future activity, this online conference could help you. Participation is free! Skillbox online university is a leader on the market of online education in Russia, according to Ruward 2019. More over 30,000 students trust Skillbox. All the necessary links are in bio. And quickly! There are only 1,500 free tickets! Go, go, go to new knowledge! While Durant and Chevrole were tinkering their products in garages, in 1911, some Walter Percy came to Buick, and his surname would become a household name. Chrysler. He came to work as a production manager for Buick cars. Chapter III. Walter Chrysler Chrysler was a fascinating man. He knew his way around his age’s cutting tech, he loved the manufacturing process, and thanks to his talents - and he was a really talented man - By 30, he already took a position as general manager of American Locomotive Co. It was the largest railway company in the USA at that time. There is a very interesting legend that Chrysler had been working upward his whole life, from a janitor to the board member of that railway company. And it's true, his first position was low. And he could have never afforded a car but he dreamt of it, and as soon as he was a general manager, he bought a car. He admired its structure so much! He took it apart piece by piece in his garage, and put it back together again, yet he didn't know how to drive. He decided that his life would be connected with cars. Like, I'm gonna make them, bye-bye! But it was more prosaic, really. There was an investment banker in the board, James J. Storrow. He noticed the young manager who moved up through the ranks of the American railway corporation very fast. And he said, "Okay, guys, maybe we should hunt this dude? He's alright." And then, actually, he and Buick's president Charles Nash came to Chrysler and said, "Okay, bro, come work for us. We won't pay you enough money, but we have a very interesting job. We'll give you the productional line, you'll fix it, and then we'll see". The most surprising thing was Chrysler saying yes. His wage was minimal. 6,000 bucks a year. For his position at that time, it was shockingly cheap. Perhaps, those guys gave him a pretty picture of the processes he would go on to forever impact. And he was very happy to agree. They pursued him, plain and simple. Perhaps it is true that he really had admired some car, took it to pieces etc, but they eagerly pursued him. One way or another, Chrysler distinguished himself as the best. After 4 years, he re-organized the manufacturing line so that they were producing not just 20 cars a day but rather 550 cars a day. Think about it. Such a rate of expansion in 1920. During that time, Durant returned to the board. He saw the talented manager Chrysler and offered him a vice president position. Chrysler agreed, of course. But he'd been holding that position for 4 years. During those 4 years of work, he and Durant had many disagreements. They had vastly different approaches to business operations. In 1920, because of disagreements with Durant, Chrysler left to - guess what? To found Chrysler! What a way to name something! So very original! No one thought about it before! To name a company after a surname. Holy cow! But it was not so simple. It was the 1920s. The time of the garage self-learners had past. You couldn't just start a car company from scratch. You needed resources, facilities, manufactures, money and blah blah blah. Ford was already blazing away. The GM machine was blazing away. The market was competitive and busy. Actually, it's not fully clear if Chrysler left with a thought that he had to start his own company, or if he just left GM. Because after GM, he went to work at Willys-Overland. Or, rather, he didn't ask to, but Willys' board invited him asking him to help clean up their mess. The company was on its knees, everything was doing poorly. They had invested a ton of money but the result was bleeding money. They called Chrysler in order to fix the situation. They offered him 1 million dollars annual salary. It’s still a huge sum today. Imagine it. And in 1920s, it was astronomical, It’s limitless wealth. You couldn't spend all of it in a lifetime! And it was a sum for a year! And his contract was for two years. Chrysler made a lot of money. When he left GM, he had about 10 million dollars in his personal account. I remind you again, originally, that man came for a manager position making 6,000 bucks a year. So you know that Chrysler knew how to make bank. Chrysler worked in Willys for 2 years. And then he saw another company, named Maxwell Motors, that was also dying at that time. Interesting fact: Maxwell Motors was the first company in history of car making that marketed their cars for women. In 1920, women were treated not as well. People were wondering if women were equal humans, if they could have a right to vote or if they should just wash dishes. And Maxwell thought “we'll make cars for them!” It's not clear if they're humans or not. But it's okay. And in 1909, they sponsored Alice Ramsey, a feemale driver. She drove through all the States, from shore to shore, in a Maxwell car. There was an impossible amount of hype! All the media were writing about, discussing it. Look here, a woman who's a driver! But the cars in general lacked in sales. Those fellas missed the fact that though women were humans - maybe! - but they lacked a disposable income. Men had all the money. And men didn't prefer cars designed for women. So Maxwell had no sales. But Chrysler came and said, to hell with cars for women, I shall make cars for normal men. But, there was a problem. Maxwell was a pretty large company. They couldn't come, throw everything out, and remake everything. That's why Chrysler's process of reorganization lasted 3 years. And after 3 years, Maxwell Company officially ceased to exist. The Chrysler company was born from its ashes using its facilities. It quickly took off. Almost immediately, they launched 2 additional brands, Pontiac and De Soto. And then, they bought another company with an impossibly creative name from the Dodge brothers - the Dodge company. Or, rather, Chrysler didn't buy the company from the Dodge brothers but from their family. Because in 1920, pneumonia was lethal. The Dodge brothers died as its victims. Pneumonia the sole cause of death. Today, you could swallow some pills, and be alright. But back then - welcome to the grave. The most important thing, don't tell it to anti-vaxxers. Chrysler was lucky and excited. In 1928, he was called the Man of the Year around America. You should remember that cartoon, I believe you saw that cartoon, Spider Man. Do you remember it from your childhood? I'll remind you, there was a man, a bad guy, I guess his name was Task. But he was big and square, in a giant skyscraper. So, that was the Chrysler Building. And Chrysler built it. Can you imagine, how rich he was? Still today, 100 years later, it's one of the most significant buildings in America. It's not like renting a Lamborghini and making photos like you're so successful. He built a giant skyscraper, actually, for lack of anything better to do. He didn't need it, really. Just let's build this giant, for no reason! Well, nevertheless, Chrysler Corporation and Walter Percy Chrysler are the third pivotal part in the foundation of Detroit's future. And so, we come to 1930s. All the top brands, Ford, GM and Chrysler, were in Detroit, their manufactures were there. There were working full speed, money came from everywhere. Just imagine, the most successful car industry in the world; all the main manufacturers were concentrated in one place. And beside the car makers, there was also a concentration of all the companies that supplied the automobile industries: like paints, oil, wheels and so on. Now we have to take a step aside from cars so we can see the whole picture. I need to give you a bit more of context about the city itself. Or else - what, I wasted 3 weeks in English sources for nothing? Or, rather, American ones. I'm gonna tell you everything now. Chapter IV. Detroit in 1920s and 1930s 20 years later, Detroit became the fourth city in the US by population. And because it was merely industrial, no Nobel Prize Winners were gathering there, but unskilled workers, mainly Black ones. Add to that Ford's politics: he paid his workers much more than market prices, and he promised to pay everyone much more than market prices, and he paid! Really, worker wages in Ford factories were the highest ones on the market. Detroit became the center of the Great Migration. The Great Migration is the process in the US in 1920-1930s, when the population of the agricultural South was leaving to the industrial North. First, because the white southern population treated Black people inferiorly and frequently used violence without any doubts. Second, it was better working in the North in the factory plants and earning money than sitting in the South on the field and earning a bullet in your ass. Who does this nigger think he is? Calm down. Plus, white people who had their Black workers, servants, etc, etc, - they were leaving to North all the same because there was a growth perspective. Of course, they brought many with them. Now it would be a bit difficult. Hang on and try to hold the picture in your mind. In general, the city was populated with unskilled workers. Mostly Black ones, immigrants from other countries, Jews - hi, Ford! - and the top management, white people who were making money on all those people. They didn't have much respect to each other. And that's why in 1920, in Detroit, they opened a branch office of the non-for-profit organization that was called Ku Klux Klan. It originated from the South, but then, together with the Great Migration, it spread out across all the country. The main idea of that organization was in no way allowing equality between white people and black people and saving the country from Black invasion. Their activity resulted in hundreds of thousands killed. The main swing of their terror occurred in the first half of XX century. During their peak years, in 1920s, KKK accounted for 6 million people. And even today, in XXI century, Ku Klux Klan still exists. Going further, we add to this company the Prohibition that was in force since 1920 till 1933. Here I should tell you a little about Detroit's location. It was and is located on the Canadian border. There is the Detroit River, and naturally, it was the main center and the major unit of alcohol contraband during the years of Prohibition. And who could smuggle booze? Right you are, peace loving guys with Tommy guns. By the way, did some of you play the old video game called Gangsters 2? It's very ancient, blood flows out of your eyes when you look at the graphics, but it's still one of my favorite childhood games. This game tells you about this era. If you didn't play it and you're ready to suffer that graphics, I very much advise it. Let's gather those things together. Imagine that growing operation; the flow of Black people greeted near the city by peace-loving guys in white hoods; bootleggers with machine guns constantly driving across the city; and all this time, up there, the very top of top managers sitting and throwing money just like that because they really had a shit ton of money. And when we put all of this together, as the result, we have very friendly, welcoming vibes of a large, evolving industrial city. The icing on the cake was the market crash in 1929, when a pretty huge amount of smart and not so smart people went for a walk out of the window. According to the official statistics only, according to the official data, there were 3-4 people killing themselves a day in Detroit. If anything, it's a pretty big number. And so, the average citizen of Detroit at that moment was a Black unskilled worker who was hiding in backstreets in order not to be caught by a dude in the white hood; drunk gangsters with Tommy guns crossing his way all the time; and people falling from the windows to their deaths. And like that, you're going to work. During the Great Depression, production declined very much, which was logical. Factories had to fire people in bunches because they didn't have any money to pay salaries, and they couldn't produce without demand. Chapter V. Hunger March The result of all this was the Hunger March 7th March 1932. The media called it the bloodiest day of car making. The most participants were from the Ford plant. Of course, we could tell that the communist party always supported unrest among the workers, and agitators were always there, and those guys believed that a world of equals was possible, and so on. But I don't mess with politics, my interest lies with cars only. If we would pull the politics into all of this, we wouldn't finish until Sunday although today's Monday. The media was filled with headlines screaming about the Ford Massacre, as if Ford himself organized it. What was it? 5000 people gathered, they wrote 14 demands, standard ones, like to hire everybody back, to raise salaries, to kill racial discrimination... Peace, friendship, cookies, and so on. But the main interesting thing for us is that was the first day when there was a demand to give workers the right to organize unions. It's very important, you'll find out why later. But in 1932, instead of fulfilling their demands, those workers got bullets as an answer. If you would read original paper articles of those times - and I really did it while getting ready for this video - they described a very peaceful demonstration that was first going across the city, then they decided to go to the plant. They marched up to the fence of the Ford plant, and police and security met them there. First, there was tear gas, then batons. Then someone shot in the air, and then at people. As the result, 60 workers and 25 policemen were wounded, and 5 workers died after that march during 3 months. It's a question if we should believe the press. From one hand - yes, it's a terrible thing to shoot up some peaceful demonstration, also unacceptable in any way. From the other hand, I personally don't believe that 5000 fired and hungry workers, who were standing in freezing cold all day, were going to the factory to drink some tea. I doubt it very much. The factory is a private property, it's untouchable, and so on, etc. It's a very strict matter in the US. Even now, if you trespass some private property, you could get shot. Seriously, with a gun, and no one would even say anything. And back then, morals were even harder, and basically, police and security just did their job at that moment, most likely. But of course, I don't argue that was the most bloody day in the history of car making. In Ford's defence, I could say following: at that moment, he really had the biggest salaries in all the industry. In 1929, it was about 1,600 dollars a month. It's a pretty normal sum right now, you could bust your ass for 1,600 bucks. And back then, several families could live on this kind of money. It was enough for one man to work like that to support a whole lot more. And of course, at the time of the Great Depression, the salaries went down, but still, they amounted to 750-800 dollars, and that, too, was a pretty sum of money. The most important thing to remember is the fact of the first demand to build unions; they would play their part later. But for now, let's get back to the city. After any economic jam, even the biggest one, the country would go through a very fast and flying boom. And in 1935, when the economy chilled out, Detroit started to launch itself to space. People began to rush into the city with an incredible speed. Here's the official statistics, some numbers that don't need even to be commented. 1930-1950, 300,000 people came into the city. And at that time, there were no computers, there was no normal documentation; and these are the official data only. I think the real scale was even bigger. And beside the expected economical growth, there is an explanation to this new wave of migration. An event began which would bring fabulous money to Americans, and Detroit would be the world center of industry and manufacture. World War II. Chapter 6. World War II As we all know, the victors in the war were our famous moustached dude, the British famous fat dude, and the American - who knows who it is anyway? America was lucky because there was no fighting on their territory. All the commotion was in our country, in Europe and in Japan. Well, in general. And Americans just produced military hardware, supplied their army, supplied the Allies; they produced everything they needed and made some incredible money off that. There were no civilian cars producing in the US during that time period. Every manufacture was working at the war machine. We all know heroic deeds of our grandparents, we now how mobilized the USSR was. Absolutely every plant and facility were producing everything necessary for the front: weapons, hardware, ammunition. All our country was working hard. And now, look at the numbers. The GDP in billions of dollars during the war. Why am I showing you this? I don't want to diminish great deeds of our ancestors and the USSR's role in the war. You just need to understand the scale of the US war machine at that time. Look at 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945. The USA produced military hardware way more than us. And of course, the center of all that was Detroit. Here's an example for you. During the war, within impossible deadlines, the Willow Run plant was built to produce the heavy bomber B-24. It was 45 km from Detroit, and Ford owned it. 42,000 workplaces, 3,500 hectares of space, and a 1.5 km long assembly line. Ford knew something about the line assembly, and that's why one heavy bomber left the assembly line of that plant in an hour. That damned thing with 25 tons! It was put together from scratch, from a set of bolts and nuts into a whole bomber in 60 minutes. Chrysler didn't go tits up and produced tanks, self-propelled carriers, and all of that. He was working for the Detroit Arsenal. If you're interested, Google it. But that’s a fact. During the war, Chrysler put together 90,000 combat units, i.e. tanks and self-propelled carriers. No, not like that. All the USSR, during the war, including tanks, carriers and everything, it produced 95,500 combat units. And Chrysler only - 90,000. That's more clear, I think. They weren't being bombed, nothing. They were just producing war hardware, and they were making money off it, that's it. And after the war, they, too, were victors, and they got war reparations, territories, plants, equipment, everything they could take from the lost countries. They could take it all to the US. They had a shit ton of money. Exactly that was the reason of what we call the golden age of car making. 1950s. Chapter VII. The fat 1950s When I hear the words "American car", I imagine not that modern shit but cars from 1950-1960s, children of Detroit. Buick Roadmaster; Cadillac Series 62 since generation 4; incredibly crazy Chrysler Town & Country; Chevrolet Bel Air; Chevrolet Impala; Chevrolet Delray; Cadillac Deville; Ford Del Rio; F-Series for the first generation. Just look at that, just look! Ford Thunderbird - and, of course, Ford Mustang, Dodge Charger, Chevrolet Camaro and so on. There were just jillions of those cars. Gas costed like water; everything that was less that V8 for 5 liters wasn't regarded as a car. And at that time, cars had a 3-year production cycle. Today, each model from each big producer has a 7-year production cycle. Like, you produce a car. It has a restyling 3-4 years later, and then it will have a new model. Back then, it was 3 years, and it was a standard no one was allowed to violate. You couldn't keep up with your competition if you'd be producing your car so long. People bought off everything, it was crazy that Cadillac Series 62 was changing every year. Every year! It was changing either its look, or its motor, or both. Right now, in October, we have a hot meme again that all the losers have last year iPhones. Gadgets for 600-1000 dollars. And back then, the same was with cars. If you had a last year Cadillac Series 62, you were a loser and could go screw yourself. That were cars for tens thousand dollars, not some ridiculous phone. For example, Chrysler had an ad campaign where they proudly declared that their cars were the most fuel-hungry cars in the world. And they were wanted because of that! They sucked gas like nobody's business, and people wanted those cars for themselves! Because that was super cool. We can't understand that with our modern brain. Like, 40 liters? I'll take it! Nice! It fits me! 35? You're a loser! I have 40! What?! At that moment, the car cult was born. Exactly at that moment, the image was born every last of us dreamt of: a highway running over the horizon, you're over the wheel of a 20-feet-coupe, you have a V8 under the hood, and you're driving. That was the moment that cult was born. And if this image for us is a dream that would never come true, back then, everybody lived like that! They had all of that! They had 20-feet-coupes, giant, impossible engines, and highways running over the horizon. At that time, in 1940-1950s, all the arterial roads were built through all the states. They wrote songs about cars. For example, Dinah Shore was singing that you should have a road trip in your Chevrolet ASAP. Life is amazing in the Chevy! Yes, of course! She didn't sit in a modern Cruze! At that time, car clubs started. If Ford Model T gave people an opportunity to have a car, then American cars of 1950s gave people an opportunity to fall in love with them. They were speaking and dreaming about cars. The whole way of life was built around them. In 1945, the Americans had 25 million cars. In 1955, their amount was 52 millions. The motor park doubled in 10 years. Cars were like drugs to the population. And Detroit was like their dealer that was constantly giving them new fixes. But while top managers of Ford, GM and Chrysler were basking in their success and rolling in clover as much as they could, the situation began to change a bit. All this magnificence in general, and Detroit in particular, were finished by a large coincidence of factors that were independent. Like it always has been, all those young people that were born in 1950s or in the late 1940s and were growing up in that insanity, people who were 17-20 years old, began to foster polar opposite values. It was the birth of one of the mass cultures in the modern world. Hippies. They wanted to gain enlightenment and nirvana, by mediations, cannabis, alcohol, guitar by the fire, and so on, and so forth. And as you can guess, the list of those values didn't include a V8. Plus, hippies thought that the best way of living were communes. Like, a common territory, everything is common, nothing belongs to anyone, everyone shares with each other, blah-blah-blah. And, according to that concept, it was pretty weird to have your own car. That is why they did not dream about their own new Cadillac. And what did the senior staff of the Big Three do? Right you are! They went to work on it. They thought those students would smoke, drink, fuck - but then they'd move on, find normal jobs and they would buy their new product, the new V8. Everything would be cool, nothing to worry about. Waiter, more champagne! In 1956, when everyone was rolling in clover, sales were growing, everything was cool, a point of no return happened. Without any war declaration or warning, the Packard factory closed. Not Hewlett-Packard with printers, but just Packard - a car maker. I didn't tell about it earlier on purpose to save it for last for those who didn't fall asleep and who endured till this moment. Packard was the American Rolls-Royce. The company was founded in 1899. But essentially, it was like the American Rolls-Royce. And guess the surname of the founder of this company? Correct, Packard! And his name was James Ward. Till 1928, Packard was a top performer in manufacturing of high-end vehicles in the USA. Those vehicles were even delivered to the Soviet Union en masse. Oh wait. What Soviet Union? We had communism, equality and shit like this. No one had any money, alright? Oh yes. Yes. Packards were bought for state institutions. And for people, a simple car, in general, was some event, like - oh, shit! A box rides by itself! They didn't understand if it was high-end. Simple cars were like wonders. A new model of ZAZ Zaporozhets, that's all. More than a half of state motor parks were represented with Packards. Beside that - equality, communism, cookies. There's even a legend that some Packard parts were used for designing the first Soviet car ZIS 110. But we'll look at this legend some time later. That is a very long story, too. But during the Great Depression, Packard was feeling really bad because they produced only high-end cars and nothing else. The demand fell to the bottom. And if the Big Three had an option to offer something cheaper and so on, and they survived because of those sales, Packard had nothing to offer. That's why they decided to move over to the sector of cheaper cars. And during the following 20 years, they were losing the competition with the Big Three. They had more experience and resources, just as simple as that. Packard started the brand dilution and began to lose their original clients. If Rolls-Royce would make a model based on Toyota Corolla today, it would be the last day for Rolls-Royce. Now it's obvious. But it wasn't obvious for Packard in 1920s. In 1948, when all the car makers were chasing for an unreal cool look, Packard was producing the Model 23 which received a nickname given by people - "turned over bathtub". It was really a very strange car according to the design, and among others, it was real bullshit. And at that moment, when the company teetered on the edge of profitability, sales, and all that, it was pushed to the abyss by its own workers. Do you remember me talking about unions? Chapter 8. UAW Meet Walter Reuther! Strange as it is, there is practically no information about this guy in the Runet. I found it a big surprise that it was impossible to find something about him in Russian. You'll understand why. He was raised in the family of German immigrants, and his father was a bit of a crazy socialist. He always burdened his children with questions, like, about equality, women's rights, communism and other such stuff. In the age of 19, Walter decided to leave home. And he came to work to the Ford plant. The funny fact: in order to become a worker in Ford's plant, your minimum age had to be 25 years. But the shift foreman liked Walter very much, so he wrote in the documents that he was, like, almost 60, and hired him. And so, very quickly, Walter became the most well-paid worker on the Ford plant. Just because he could read checklists and normative documents very well. As we can see, nothing really has changed in 100 years, if we look at the modern Ford production. If you can read, you'd surely be the best worker of the month. In 1927, when Walter was spending much time working at the Ford plant, some interesting thing happened. They stopped producing Ford Model T. And Ford, being a real manufacturer, wasn't used to throwing anything out. He sold the assembly line with its workers to the Soviet Union. Those workers' goal was to bring, put together and adjust the assembly line. And yes, GAZ began with the Ford Model T assembly line. The first GAZ models ever produced were GAZ A and GAZ AA. Just like batteries, really. Those were revamped and very badly composed Ford A and Ford AA. And so, a bunch of workers headed by Walter because he was the only one who could read, were sent to organize production to us, to the Soviet Union. And Walter was freaking shocked. It was -30 degrees, their barracks were unheated, the workers were living in unthinkable conditions. The top staff didn't know any shit about anything. No one was in control, no one took any responsibility, and no one knew how to manage anything. As we all remember, about 15 years earlier of those events, every man in the country who could manage, or knew something about production, was executed by shooting, de-kulakised, etc. Every day, Walter wrote letters to the press, to committees, so that somebody paid attention to how workers lived: -30, no heat, nobody gave a shit. Welcome to Russia! What did you expect?! And Vityok - I think, Walter got a name Vityok very quickly after he came to the Soviet Union... He had a full insurance from Ford and a raging fire in his eyes. So he took a journey after he fulfilled his responsibilities. He spent 2 years adjusting the assembly line, and after that, he decided to take a journey. On a bike. On a bike! Like, that dude took part in launching a plant. Then they did it, he looked at the thing they put together, and he was like, guys, screw it, I will take a bike. That reasonable traveler - on a bike, once again - went to Turkey, Iran, India, and China. Somehow, he managed to reach Japan. There, he sailed as a sailor on some cargo ship going to the USA, returned back home, and then he discovered his brother building up a union. And because Walter had seen the hungry terrors in the USSR with -30 temperatures, as well as traveling across countries and studying other workers' experiences, he was appalled. He devoted himself to the fight for human rights. Later, you'll realize why I'm mocking him. But there's his quote. "All people long for the same basic human goals of a job with some degree of security, greater opportunity for their children, and of course, freedom. We felt we could make a contribution by helping American workers build strong and democratic labor unions. That's why we went into the labor movement." Why am I telling you about this dude? Because the result of his convulsive activity was UAW. United Automobile Workers. It's an American organization of unions, and it works still, today. Among others, it's called one of the main reasons of Detroit's fall from grace. The very beginning was adequate. The first strike, or, rather, the first action happened on the Kelsey Hayes plant which supplied the Ford factory and its assembly line with brake shoes and wheels. Walter and his brother convinced the workers to call a strike, to stop working; it was their answer to the top staff demanding a speed up of the assembly line. It is said that workers were constantly losing their fingers or even limbs during the process. The idea was that the speed increase of the assembly line could just as likely increase the speed of losing those workers' fingers. That's why they had do a strike immediately and stop the production. The workers agreed to stop working. The assembly line stopped. And they were joined by some regular people, their friends and family and so on. They blocked the entrances to the plant and prevented managers from entering. After 10 days of that activity, the top staff of Kelsey had to satisfy the workers' demands because Uncle Ford really needed those parts, those brake shoes and wheels. Because he had another assembly line. Well, if the main assembly line stopped, it would hurt. And the results of that strike were following: the assembly line was slowed down, and the top staff didn't have the right to fire the strikers. Because they joined UAW. And the plant negotiated with UAW, it was the condition for the end of the strike. That was the dumbest situation. You build manufactures, you build a plant, you hire people to work, with conditions they agreed to. You pay them, but at some point, a Vityok comes, all this stops, you bear incredible losses; you make Ford seek for an additional supplier and reduce your profit in the future; you slow the assembly line down - but you can't fire those workers. If they would drink, be lazy, skip work, you can't fire them, go talk to Vityok. And he would decide if you could fire someone. After that event, UAW began to exist officially, and it began to hit the top immediately. At that moment, in 1936, the biggest manufacturer was GM. And on December 31, 1936, the largest sit-down strike on the GM plant in Flint began. It was a sit-down strike because the workers, literally, sat down on their asses, and that was right inside the facilities. Like, the 31st, Happy New Year, we'll be sitting here. But the top staff didn't draw a blank and turned the heating off for the night. Like, you guys could sit here and freeze. But because of communism, of ideas of communists, because of strikes and riots, and because of the example of the USSR and Europe, It was very easy to startle the workers. And that is why the workers striking in Flint were supported by people from other plants. A few days later workers at the Detroit's Fleetwood Plant also sat down. And that plant was producing engines for Cadillacs. And there was a chain reaction: Oakland, California, Pontiac, Michigan, and St. Louis, Missouri. Workers from all over the country supported those guys in Flint. As it usually was in situations like that, the police came and tried to disperse the protest. Like, guys, perhaps you should go? Why are you sitting here? Family waits for you at home. But those negotiations weren't successful. At some point, batons came into play, then bullets and blah-blah. 13 workers were wounded. But they didn't give the plant away. The mayor himself had to intervene, with 2,000 members of the National Guard, not to shoot everyone down, but to keep the peace. So that no one could kill each other. Because the fever pitch was horrible. New Year, cold weather, no heating, the plant stopped, people sitting inside. The situation was no good. But GM gave up only after the sit-down of the plant that was the only one producing engines for Chevrolet. Chevrolet was the most profit generating brand at that moment, and the fate of the company depended on it. And when those workers sat down on their asses, GM gave in. They had to agree to all the terms and sign all the documents with UAW. The strike lasted 44 days. And Roy, Walter's brother, said, "When the boys came out of the plants, I never saw a night like that and perhaps will never see it again. I liken it to a country experiencing independence, families reunited for the first time since the strike began, kids hanging onto daddy with tears of joy and happiness. It was a sea of humanity in which fears were no longer on the minds of the workers." After that strike, GM signed an absolutely horrible, hellish document, Reuther's Treaty of Detroit. I won't translate it for you. But the most important part was - just think of it - it gave UAW the right and a seat in the board of the concern in exchange of a promise not to strike for 5 years. Just think of it! Walter and his brother Roy organized massive strikes in all of GM's plants, pressed out a legit seat in the board of the concern. Do you think they left it at that? No, of course! Already 4 weeks later, 60,000 Chrysler's workers sat down. And he joined UAW with the same terms. The problem with the conveyor belt method is the strike being the most terrible thing to happen. All the parts, all the accessory parts on the whole assembly line are the products of other manufactures with their own assembly lines. And if they main assembly line stops for a day - not to mention a month - all the systems goes sideways. First, dealers don't get their cars, they have nothing to pay to their managers. Second, customers go to the showroom, they see no cars and go to the competitors. By that, the brand credibility gets worse, and the demand for cars falls. On the other hand, sales of all the suppliers drop. They also have either to slow down their facility, not pay a salary to their workers, and fire them, and so on - or they have to produce to stock, but they need capital they don't have because there are no sales. And that standstill, even on one link of the assembly lines, kills all the system. And recovering all the work of all the companies would be tremendously hard. Think for a second. If UAW had such a mighty tool, such a business leverage, would they use it in their own personal interests? Well, no, of course not, obviously! Just for the sake of workers! The world peace is important, equality matters - ah, sorry, here's my Rolls-Royce, I'm off! They only one who realized what happened was Ford because he knew about sociology and politics much more than all other car makers. There was a funny guy in his board, Harry Herbert Bennett. That's a name for a real gangster! Actually, he was like Valuev, only smart. That's an analogue. He was a boxer and Naval sailor. In the board, he was responsible for security of all the plants, companies and so on. In other words, he was Ford's security. Like, hey you, I'll kick your ass. And he was in the board. There is a funny fact about this person. As befits a real crazy military man, he was paranoid. He always thought someone could watch him, attack and kill him. Look at the house he built for himself in Michigan on a lost, isolated lake. It was an actual unassailable fortress. The whole house was surrounded by a pit with sharpened wooden stakes. The only road to the house led across the bridge with explosives inside. Just in case. On the roof, there was a tower with a guard shack; there were armed guards permanently in there. In case of an attack, there was a secret staircase in the house that led into an underground shelter. It led to the lake. You could cross it with the boat and disappear. The staircase had different spaces between steps so that Bennett's pursuers could have every chance to break their legs in the dark. And Bennett himself trained constantly by running that staircase up and down to remember every space between steps. And that man with perfect mental health was the head of Ford's security. Do you remember the Hunger March I spoke about in the beginning? When police and security shot the workers? That was exactly the operation Harry was the head of. He had the power Ford personally gave to him: to scare, threaten, fire, and even beat any worker who, in public or in secret, approved ideas of unions, socialism and any similar stuff. As soon as anyone mentioned something about their rights, they were hit. Just so you know, Ford's workers were the most well-warranted ones, with insurances, with medicine, with everything. Just so you know. I'm messing with you right now, but Ford's workers had very cool conditions and terms. After Chrysler had fallen down before UAW, the only one remaining was Ford. And he became the main target. But his plants were organized so well, and no agitator could possibly sneak out there. Plus, all the workers valued their places, in some way or another. They understood that others had it worse. Others had it much worse: payments were less, bullying was harder, and UAW couldn't help there. Eventually, Walter thought of a brilliant PR stint— marketing and so on. He gathered a bunch of journalists, his brother, some more people, and with this lot, he came to the front gate of Ford River Rouge Complex. That was the largest plant in the world at that moment that belonged to Ford. It was the largest technological machine. And they began to spread leaflets that read, "Unionism, not Fordism". I don't know how to translate it, but you get the point. Technically, he and his lot didn't break any rules, so because of that no one hurt them. Harry Bennett and his boys were standing still near the gate. Nothing was happening beside leaflets. And Walter saw no fever pitch: Nothing was happening, those guys were standing still, but there were journalists, photos, something had to be done. Walter took 3 leaders of UAW and began to force his way through. They had a bridge there, and he tried to climb on that bridge. And that was not allowed. That was bad. And of course, security tried to stop him. But those guys resisted quite firmly. There was a fight, and Walter, with flashes of cameras and video cameras, was seriously beaten by security. As you can see on this photo, his ally Richard Frankenstein - yes, that guy had a funny name - he was beaten much harder. But no one remembered that. The press was always talking about Walter. Actually, that was not a big deal. They just smashed his nose. But Walter spread his bloody drivel on his white shirt and strengthened his image of a man who fought for workers' rights till his last drop of blood. "Be united, or Ford will do that to each of you!" The press gladly turned this story to a horror that Ford was a tyrant and rapist, and at night, he would eat babies in basements. They carried that bullshit like a red banner to all the outlets. Of course, Ford tried every possible way to clean up from those claims logically or even easier. But you couldn't go against the words of Forbes, Life, Fortune. The shit had been hitting the fan for 4 years. They were throwing mud at Ford from all the windows. His company was bearing losses, after all. And because of that, in 1941, Ford agreed to UAW's terms just the same. UAW became a political tool at once. I have my personal opinion that rights of workers and so on came next for them. Half of their board were communists. In UAW. And I think the most important ideological shit was the confrontation of ideas of communism and capitalism. Like, why do you make so much money? Move, we want it, too. Just so you know, workers were busy working 30 - 30 hours a week! I.e., their shifts were not 8 hours long but 6 hours long. And they got twice as much money as the market. UAW didn't deserve credit for it, it was long before. But UAW messed with each and every process they could and they tried to screw them up. For example, Walter invented one very interesting program and he called it 30/40. It meant they needed to keep 30-hour working week for workers, but their fees had to be like for 40 hours. At what cost? Well, let's just increase the payroll for 33% for no reason. The manufacturers said, like, perhaps we could speed up the production or something? No, no way, you can't speed up anything, or we will strike! No. We just want to work as always but to get more money. Thank God, it wasn't allowed. What do you think? Is that program normal? By the way, do you remember UAW's first contract? They promised not to strike for 5 years. Guess how UAW celebrated the end of that contract after 5 years? Correct. With a 113-day strike on GM plants. Ok, let's close your production for 3 months. Almost for 4 months even. But you have to pay our money, or we'll strike for 5 months. As you could guess, UAW brought everyone to heel, and if the Big Three could survive thanks to their large sales results, and they could keep their heads above the water, but poor Packard didn't make it. By the way, this topic began with Packard. Are you with me yet or what? Wake up! Remember Packard, ASAP! First, the Bendix plant stopped for a week long strike. That plant supplied Packard with brakes. Then it was the Briggs plant that supplied Packard with body parts. And then, the whole Packard's assembly line. They sat down on their asses, and they were like, we're striking and doing nothing. With the competition and serious mistakes in marketing, those strikes hit destroying blows at the company. In agony of death, avoiding bankruptcy, Packard made a deal with Studebaker. They decided to buy the Studebaker company. At the moment of the deal, it was quite a big car maker. The united company Studebaker-Packard had to become the 4th company after the Big Three and compete with them. And in general, it was pretty forward-looking. But the problem was, Studebaker managers faked every record of account, hid all the losses and debts of the company from Packard. And instead of an opportunity to grow and to look forward, Packard bought a giant, looming black hole in their finances. And in 1956, the results were following: the giant Packard plant closed. The facility became empty at once. You could say it was a symbol of nearing destruction because it was located in the city center. 40,000 people worked there at the peak of production, and when Packard fell, that facility was unclaimed. They had a giant abandoned building in the middle of the city. First, it attracted all the illegal organizations. Let's just say, there were poor people, beggars, addicts, and blah blah blah. Some people tried to rent something in parts, to optimize something. But still, Packard died beyond revival. And the facility is still abandoned. Today, it has the very same signs, symbols, and so on. Everything I described to you before, the whole picture began to crumble. In 1956, it was the first blow, shutting down of the Packard plant. In 1957, the world suffered a crisis of overproduction. It was a major hit for everyone. The world economy became unstable, and it was bad for everyone. During one year, the production fell over 12% across the country in average. Those percents were higher in Detroit. Moreover, add to this crisis another one, the world trade crisis, that made less commodity circulation between countries. Any crisis was associated with job cuts, and it was very visible in Detroit. Since 1957, Detroit's population began decreasing very rapidly because people stopped hiring. On the contrary, workers were being fired, Bit by bit, the streets began to be flooded with piss-poor, unemployed people, and every manufacture had to be optimized because no one wanted to share Packard's fate. The third blow. Remember, I told you about the flow of Black people into the city. In 1960s, they played their crucial part. To that moment, technically, every fifth town dweller was Black. And most of them were just piss-poor people who didn't find their place in the sun or who were fired from any manufacture. During 1960s, Black people were still strongly discriminated against. That has been always a very acute question in the US. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. said his famous speech, "I have a dream". The movement for the rights of Black people was gathering pace more and more. And given that Detroit's white population had always led a flashy lifestyle, with expensive cars, celebrations, magnificent buildings and everything, the mercury began to rise a bit. Add to that constant strikes, and dispersal of those strikes by the police. And the situation in that world became explosive. One match was enough so that all was set ablaze. And that match was a harmless police raid to one of Detroit's speakeasies that was called Blind Pigs. I didn't make it out, it's a real name. At that time, there was a curfew in the city, and it was a usual thing for the police to stagger around neighborhoods after the curfew. Like, you find a bar, see 5 drunken people, push them into the car, bring into custody, book them, and release them in a day. Nothing special, everyone was used to it. But in Blind Pigs, there were 82 people who celebrated the return of their friends from the war in Vietnam. Yes, at that time, there was the war in Vietnam, there was the Cold War, and if I'd tell you about that, too, we had an impossible timing, really. As the result, everyone was arrested. And people didn't like it very much. In an instant, there was a huge crowd, and they didn't like it at all. In order to express their displeasure, they went to smash everything they saw. Chapter IX. Detroit Riot The next day, the next morning, there were disorders and chaos all over the city. People were smashing shop-windows, burning cars, plundering shops. Over 10,000 people took part in this disorder. That event is known in history as the Detroit Riot. That was the only time in the US history when the government had to use military in order to suppress the riot. They needed 8,000 soldiers, 4,500 marines and tanks, too. They moved tanks to the city just to calm people down. As the result, there were 43 dead, 407 wounded, but wounded among civilians were only 182. The rest were policemen, firefighters, and military men who tried to put out fires and to calm people down somehow. 412 houses were burnt down. 2,500 shops were plundered. Just imagine, you are a white person, a person from middle class. You wake up a Sunday morning, pour a cup of coffee, go to the window, open the curtain - and you see rioting people burning your car, stealing things from the nearest shop, and tanks shooting at them. What kind of reaction would you have? Fuck this! Exactly that was the course of action of all the sane population. There was an outflow of the financially solid and educated population. Everyone was leaving the town! In 1970s, just 3 years after the riot, already every second citizen in town was Black. The fourth blow - competition and tied hands of the top staff of the Big Three. At that moment, everyone realized the industry had to change. Markets were falling downward with sales and demand, and the top staff of the Big Three had decisions to make. But UAW boycotted each and every one of them. If anything was about reorganization of production, or salary decrease, or anything, they boycotted that. UAW was already a political tool with their deputies, with their slogans, and everything. The largest problem was that people in UAW seriously thought they could manage business. But no. There were talented people in the board of the Big Three but their hands were tied because not one decision could pass. The UAW didn't care that without car makers, without those companies, there would be neither UAW, nor workers, no workspaces, no production, no Detroit at all. They just didn't care. If it was alright before that moment, it would be alright now. Like, everything was fine. Besides, at that point, during 70 years while the American car making existed, they didn't know anything about competition with other countries. They didn't know about competition with other car ideologies. Everything they knew was about competing among themselves: adding another foot of iron to the car, putting a bigger engine inside with larger volumes, calling that some prestige you couldn't think or even dream of. Please, buy! That was all that American car makers could do at that moment. Do you remember I was telling you about hippies? In 1970s, those young addicted people were actually the core of the society. There were the American middle-class. They were that foundation all the American economy stood upon. During 20 years, those American car makers didn't hear hippies' values. They didn't realize that those people didn't need their cars. And in Summer 1949, 20 years before that moment, before 1970s I'm telling you about, the first Volkswagen Beetle crossed the Atlantic. Chapter X. Germans and Japanese Our previous video was devoted to the history of that car. If you didn't see it, be sure to check it out. If you say that Volkswagen Beetle was a mediocrity among American cars of 1950s, that wouldn't do it justice. Well, LADA Granta is nothing compared to BMW 5, there's no need to compare, really. The price was low, the power was 25 HP, And beside the price and low fuel consumption, it hadn't any competitive advantages. And no one needed those in 1950s. Gentle reminder, if your car consumed less than 20 liters per 100, you weren't an efficient and pragmatic person, but a poor beggar and a fool. Because of that, in the first year, they sold... Do you have any ideas? How many? The great Hitler's car, the most popular car in the world that changed the car industry! How many of them were sold during the first year? Two. Not 2,000. Two. They sold 2 Beetles in 1949. Who was that heroic sales manager? Look here, you have 2 chances to eat in a year. You see money 2 times a year, and people take it to the money office, not to you. Besides, during their whole existence, the Big Three never thought that people might need small cars. Just in general, to ride with their wives, to move around the city or anything. They couldn't possibly imagine that. They thought everyone needed giant ships only. There was a demand for little cars. But Beetle's problem was that no one wanted to buy Hitler's car. There was still an open wound of the World War II in people's minds, no one wanted to be associated with that. But after 5 years of brilliant marketing, Volkswagen managed to break that idea in people's heads, and sales began to increase. In 1955, Volkswagen opened their assembly shop in the USA. And in 1959, their sales totaled as much as 120,000 cars a year. Fun fact, on the secondary market, a 5 year old Beetle and a 5 year old Chevrolet sedan had the same price. But the cool thing is, that originally, a Chevrolet sedan's price was twice as much. As I've always said and will say, prices on the secondary market are the most objective sign of reliability, relevance and coolness of a car as it is. Although everyone bought new Chevrolet sedans, the secondary market sorted everything out. And Beetle and a huge bath tub from Chevrolet had the same price. Even at the time when no one wanted to buy a Beetle, and Volkswagen didn't matter as a brand, even then Americans were falling in value much faster than Germans. Another reason for that was the fact that they were throw-away. Today, you yell that cars are single-use, you buy it, you throw it away. That was invented in 1950s in the USA, when demand for cars was impossible. Every year or two, it was necessary to buy a new car model. That's why there were single-use. They were bugged, unreliable, their parts were expensive. And when Beetle sales became remarkable in 1960s, the Big Three got a little nervous. Their answer was that thing. Chevrolet Corvair, the cheapest Chevrolet model at that time. By example of Beetle, they made that car rear-engined with a boxer engine 2.3 or 2.7. There were several versions. As you could have guessed, hastily designed car that was built by Amercan workers who got lazy, worked in Volkswagen's favor. The Beetle was objectively better. It was better although it was several years older. Besides, as soon as Corvair left the assembly line, it turned out that it was turning over. For some reason, engineers didn't think that anyone would drive this car. It turned over on highways very easily, and even the additional stabilizer bar during the restyling didn't solve that problem. They couldn't fool people even with propaganda of Time and Motor Trend magazines. They called Corvair a brilliant engineering idea. Best of the best. It was named the Car of the Year, it received a bunch of awards. But after 10 years of that car's existance, its total sales were 200,000 cars. In early 1960s, the Beetle sales were already 100,000 cars a year. Americans sucked! And in 1969, the total sum was 550,000 Volkswagen Beetles. How pleasant it is to say that! Volkswagen is hot! But though sales were really large, Volkswagen alone couldn't turn things over. While it drew attention of the Big Three, there was some sudden sneaking from behind. Those were very angry and very hungry Toyota, Mazda, Honda and Nissan. In 1957, this mediocrity appeared in the USA. Toyota Toyopet Crown was the first Japanese car that came to the US market. Japanese chose the way of copying American cars. Like the Chinese began to copy Japanese cars in 2000s, at their time, the Japanese copied the Americans. As the matter of fact, they made fake American cars, but much worse, much uglier and much cheaper. And when Japanese cars first appeared at the US market, they left people perplexed. How could you call it a car, anyway? Just so you know, as an example. Toyopet Crown couldn't ride on most of the American highways. Because they had elevation changes, and it couldn't go up the hill. Its engine was so weak that going up the hill, it just didn't make it and overheated. Besides, that Toyopet Crown cost more than Beetle by a third. And Beetle could go anywhere; it was light, small, it had enough engine, and it didn't overheat. Volkswagen rules! Land Cruiser 25 BG also wasn't needed by anyone in the Hippie Land. It was a paramilitary car in the land of peace and flowers. Its sales were 50 cars a year. Not thousands but cars. 4 cars a month, 1 car a week. Japanese conquered Americans! But everything changed in 1964. It was the birth year of Toyota Corona 3th generation. And beginning with that car, you could say that the Japanese realized what European and American consumers needed. An air conditioner was installed, its transmission was "Toyoglide"; and its design was developed by Battista Farina, an Italian designer. Just so you know, he was one of the founders of such unheard-of agency like Pininfarina. His showpiece was the original design of Alfa Romeo Spider. That car. It was built only 2 years later than Corona. And you should know that the Japanese always did some offbeat and very original advertising for their cars. In case of Corona, they organized a test ride when the car had to ride 100,000 km by 140 km/h speed on the Meishin Expressway. And the car made it without any breakdowns. For 1964, it was just out of your mind. When your cheap car with automatic transmission and air conditioner didn't break over a span of 100,000 km, it was just an explosion! How's that?! Any American from 1960s would fall apart without reaching that highway. As the half of the modern ones, actually. And that worked. People began to buy Toyotas. And further on, inch by inch, they began to seize the market. It was the Toyota 2000GT that was filmed in the "James Bond" movie. That was an ad, too. I won't open you a secret, will I? Guys, all the movies with cars are ads, it's all paid. Your childhood ended. There was Toyota Corolla Generation 1. And in 1969, the total sales of Toyota were 100,000 cars a year. Concurrently, a company no one knew about and no one needed named Honda launched its model S500, and suddenly, it won the first place at Nürburgring, the 600 km long race. Once again. 600 km, Nürburgring, Honda 1. Nobody knew anything about it before that. And 1966 was the birth year of S800 that nailed Formula II 11! 11 times a row. Not for all the time but in a row. 11! Honda's hallmarks were cost-effectiveness and environmental friendliness. Those are keen today, too. But back then, nobody needed that. Nevertheless! At that time, Honda sold the smallest and the most power efficient generators. Plus, Honda was producing the Super Cub which still is the most popular means of transportation in the world. It's a little motor car, James May filmed a documentary about it. It was a company doing just that. They didn't want to make any cars. In 1972, they brought the first Civic well. The car didn't matter even, the most important thing was the CVCC engine. Why was it important? As soon as that engine appeared at the market, Ford and Chrysler wanted the same. They realized they couldn't create something like that. Because with its technologies of cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency, it was unachievable for the American competitors. And they were like, well, we have to buy engines from the Japanese. And that was the moment to write a check. The Americans admitted that the Japanese were superior in motor-building. Of course, they tried to create something competitive but all their attempts were very screwed up. Like Ford Pinta, Ford Maverick, Chevrolet Vega, AMC Gremlin. Gremlin! They called their car Gremlin. Like, that would be our answer to the Japanese, our shellbomb, Gremlin! Go buy it! What!? It was strange behavior, even in the 1970s. And all their answers, considering the Japanese and Volkswagen Beetle, were very weird. In 1973, the last and giant nail was driven into the coffin of Detroit. The oil crisis. Chapter XI. The Oil Crisis and UAW Answer On October 17, all the Arabian OPEC members, like Egypt, Syria and so on, stopped selling oil to the USA and some other countries. Oil rose in price, and there were problems with supplies. And in one day, the cult of V8 was ruined. Because prices for gas steeped, there was a shortage of it in gas stations. And at some point, there was a rule that some gas stations worked only on Tuesday. This isn't my meme, it's a fact. So you could fill up the tank once a week. In no time, American cars became worthless. And the cost of their maintenance or use went up to space. And with all of that, the Japanese and the Germans who had been working for 10 years to make the most cost-efficient and reliable car became superior. What do you think the guys from UAW did? Well, they were business movers and shakers, they understood everything, they cared about workers and everything, so that they had jobs, workspaces and so on. Perhaps, they locked themselves in their offices to design a new car? To create such a thing that would definitely kill all the Japanese and Germans with one move? Or, perhaps, they began to think about the production efficiency, improving the assembly line, lowering production costs? Yeah, right. Instead of gathering together, thinking, coming to an agreement and making something good, they began to sponsor anti-Japanese movements. They began to buy Japanese cars... Just think about it, please. They began to buy Japanese cars, to exhibit them at city festivals, at parades. And they gave anybody who wanted to a hammer and a chance to crush the car. It's not a joke. Crowds were gathering around a poor Corolla or something like that. They received a hammer, and they went to smash a Japanese car. Competition! A brilliant engineering decision! Let's tear them up, guys! That was all UAW was capable of just as the Big Three under those unions. New technologies? New marketing strategy? No, take a hammer and smash a Toyota! Of course, the fired workers were told that they were fired not because their top staff were worthless and stupid but because it was the fault of the Japanese. The global conspiracy! The Japanese came and ruined our economy! There was another smart and tactical decision: those workers who stayed on the plants received bumper stickers for their cars with inscriptions "Nissan, Toyota, Pearl Harbour". Like a reference to that ship, to that fight. It was very emblematic that I found an example of that sticker on that rusty Ford. It was very funny and very stupid how those decisions were taken seriously. I just can't imagine that top staff. How did it look like? There was a round table, and they were, like, "Stickers". "First, we smashed Corolla, now for the stickers". Great! It wasn't enough that idiots from UAW sponsored those movements and stoked ethnic tensions. They got support from the top echelons of power. There was that dude, Lee Iacocca. He was the CEO of Chrysler at that time. And at a meeting with the House of Representatives, the discussion of the Japanese question arose. He joked, like, what if we throw 2 more atomic bombs on Japan? Ha ha, very funny, 450,000 human lives! A perfect joke! He was hilarious! And of course, with all this propaganda, it was pretty dangerous to have a Japanese car. But it was far more dangerous to have a Japanese face. And it was very sad, but the high point of that situation was the murder of Vincent Chin. There was that guy in 1982. Chapter XII. Vincent Chin Vincent and his friends celebrated a bachelor party before his wedding. He had a wedding the next day. Unfortunately for him, Ronald Ebens was also in that bar that night. I didn't make up that surname. Ronald Ebens and his stepson, Michael-someone, it doesn't matter. That stepson was recently fired from Chrysler, and Ebens was someone of the top staff, some plant supervisor. And at some point, those two people who were just hammered, they looked and saw Vincent. Like, that was the reason of the defeat of the American car industry, and the reason the stepson was fired, and their salary was less! There he stood! He was the main reason! As the result, there was a fight, and Vincent died several days later in the hospital. The irony was that Vincent was Chinese. The reason of that man's death was that UAW and the top staff declared that they didn't mess up but the Japanese screwed everything up. And if you had a Japanese vehicle, at that time, it was perfectly normal if you went up to it in the morning, and it had broken glasses. Or punctured tires. It could be stolen, burnt, smashed, and so on. Not because you were a bad person. You just bought the wrong car. And in 1981, when the total sales of Japanese cars were pretty darn high, the American government got very nervous about it and wondered what they could do. And then they imposed a legislative rule that the amount of cars imported to the US couldn't be more than 1,680,000. In that way, they thought they could limit the sales volume in order to stub a field for their own, for the Big Three. Do you remember that time-worn phrase? What's good for GM is good for the country. Using that slogan, they cleaned the market. But Honda said, OMG LOL, and in 1983, they opened a plant in Ohio. Not far from Detroit, their own plant. They just built it whole. Like, if we can't import it, we will build it right here. What does it matter? But the thing was, the Japanese didn't have UAW. Their workers worked in Japanese terms. And they had very strict rules. Just, but strict. That is some stuff for another video but I'm telling you something here. All the Japanese car companies worked by army laws. The rules were very strict, just as they are now. Very strict, with ranks and everything. But we'll talk about it in the video about Japan. Two years later, after the Honda plant opened in Ohio, the Toyota plant opened, too, where they built Corollas. Two years after that, there was the plant building engines for Camry. They built engines for Camry, and they began to build Camry in USA. Chapter XIII. Defeat In 1990, when Detroit was lost past recovery, like at all. The bestseller car in the US was Honda Accord. And the total sales of Japanese cars were over 3,000,000. That was a totally unachievable amount for American car makers at that time. And the higher amounts of sales of Japanese cars were, the more screwed up Detroit was. Instead of being the capital of prestige and development of car industry, it became the capital of drug trafficking, murder, and arsons. Do you remember the Robocop movie? Not the modern one that was launched recently but the right one, with Weller playing the leading role, 1987. Do you remember the vibes of the movie? It was filmed in Detroit! During that times. That was the end of 1980s. Of course, it told about the future, something like 2020s, like our time, but the whole picture and situation looked like they really were. Look at the irony! Right now, in 2019, even Hyundai Kia, which began by copying off Toyotas, has larger total sales than American companies. Here's the statistics from Bloomberg. Volkswagen is a real hottie, with 3.6. Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi - 3.4, Toyota - 3.2 Hyundai-Kia - 2.4. Look how much GM differs from the first place and Toyota! 2.15. That's a wide margin. And then, there's Ford and Fiat-Chrysler. All those numbers show us one thing: the era of American car making ended. Or, rather, the era of the American car empire. They produce something still, but not on that scale as their competitors work. They're still holding debates what the reason of Detroit's fall was. Was it a race question, or unions, or oil crisis, or wrong ruling of the city? There's a lot of reasons. But I, an automobilist and the man who was digging in archives and sources for 3 weeks, in various historic materials, I believe that the center of that storm was the Japanese and German small cars. Or, rather, not the cars themselves but the inability of American companies and American management to compete with them. After 20 years of thriving and success, they lost touch with every aspect of the market and were out of control by the early 1970s. Could the Americans return as leaders of the car industry? They could. Could Detroit be reborn? Maybe. But in 2013, Detroit had so many massive debts, that was the only time anywhere and at any point in human history, when a city was bankrupt. Yes, it was a very sad situation. But that was the only way for the Americans and the rulers of the city to revive it. Only the center is alive now in Detroit. They are building offices out there, so that it could be the center of design, arts, music and all other modern trends. Although there is some life in the city center, the rest of Detroit, all the residential communities represent a desert from abandoned houses. God grant if 1 person lives around the whole neighborhood. Japanese have won that war despite losing World War II. Despite their huge human losses during nuclear bombardments and military actions, they managed to build their car industry from the scratch and to defeat the Americans. In our next historical video, we will find out how the country could lose 4,000,000 people killed and captive, lose all its money and resources, be absolutely isolated, with sanctions - and, 13 years later, be a leader of the world car industry. Thank you very much if you have watched this video to the end. We have never filmed such complicated material with regards to script writing and editing. That's why your feedback is very important to us. If you liked it, be sure to share it on your social media. Give a link to your friends in WhatsApp and so on, and so forth. Thank you again. See you in the next video. Bye. Script and host - Stas Asafiev. Operator, editor - Pavel Avdeev. Editor, graphics - Daniil Gudkov. Project manager - Sergei Semyonov. Supported by Avtopragmat.
