The History of American Vehicles

[Music] you are about to know the thrill of seeing that which has never been seen before you're about to enter a beautiful exciting wonderful new world the world of 1960 for the first time in history you'll see not one [Applause] not to [Music] three completely new kinds of board cars for 1960 a wonderful new world of fours [Music] ever since Henry Ford started tinkering with engines and jumped into the lead of the nascent automobile industry at the end of the 19th century America has been a major producer of Motor Vehicles sometimes the styling wasn't too subtle and the cars themselves were seldom small but America took to the motor car more than any other nation building impressive roads to cater for the vast numbers of machines which rolled off the assembly lines the u.s. embraced the motor car like a wheeled God got behind the wheel and soon it seemed that no one walked anywhere anymore personal mobility meant that people could be anywhere they wanted to be in just a few minutes so they moved further away and towns became sprawling conurbations across hundreds of square miles and journeys became longer and longer [Music] vast tracts of land were given over to places to merely park cars and more still to roads that linked all the places Americans would want to go the country that gave us the shopping mall also gave us the parking lot and drive-through convenience [Music] a whole new culture emerged centered around the motor vehicle and it seemed that just about anything could be done in a car even dining out [Music] or going to the movies drive-in theaters became a major feature of American life a rite of passage for newly independent teenage drivers and their dates as the United States highway system began to develop in the 1920s long distance road journeys became more common than the need for inexpensive overnight accommodation close to the main roads led to the growth of the motel literally the motorists hotel about the time that Henry Ford was building his first cars so too was ransom olds early cars looked like and really were horse-drawn carriages without the horse General Motors bought Oldsmobile in 1908 and during its hundred and seven year history the company produced thirty-five million cars when it was killed off by GM Oldsmobile was the oldest surviving American automobile marque and one of the oldest in the world after Daimler in Persia but it is Henry Ford that the world knows as the father of US motoring his older years he'd get out of reproduction of his first car the quadricycle and drive his wife Clara around their estate Fairlane [Music] Ford's impact was felt not just in creating motorcars but in economics production management and engineering he worked out that the more cars he built the cheaper he could sell each one and thus was born the economy of scale the price of Ford's model-t dropped every year as more and more were built by 1918 half of all the cars in America were Model T's [Music] Henry Ford was a pioneer of welfare capitalism he needed to reduce a high turnover of workers and efficiency meant hiring and keeping the best people so Ford announced a $5 per day program in 1914 more than doubling the minimum daily pay for qualifying workers you Ford claimed that with this voluntary change labor turnover in his plants went from huge to so small that he simply stopped bothering to measure it when Ford started paying $5 a day and also a 40-hour working week he was criticized by other industrialists and by Wall Street but he proved that paying people more would enable Ford workers to afford the cars they were producing and it was good for the economy by bringing the parts together on a moving assembly line and by simplifying the work so that he didn't need to find skilled craftsmen Ford was able to build hundreds of cars a day the production line and mass production soon became common expressions and their influence would forever change almost every industry on earth a Sunday afternoon drive with the family became a national pastime for some families it became a ritual a habit it was possible to travel quite large distances to visit family and friends even if actually getting going took quite a while and sometimes the roads weren't too good either [Music] the sheer volume of traffic in the early days meant that many existing roads became impassable almost as soon as it began to rain local state and federal governments were forced to invest heavily in building the road network capable of handling the sudden rush of cars a never-ending task that seems destined to last as long as cars are still being driven bigger vehicles just made it worse even if they were employed in the construction process itself the First World War was the first major conflict where petrol powered vehicles had played a significant part and in return the development of vehicles such as the crack were greatly accelerated once their usefulness was apparent [Music] bigger and more complex road-building machines were designed that did the work of ten or even a hundred men hard surface roads were developed roads that wouldn't get chopped up into muddy Quagmire's in the rain and wouldn't become rock-hard and dusty in the heat of summer various systems have been developed over centuries to reduce washer ways bogging and dust in cities including cobblestones and even wooden paving tar bound macadam was applied to roads towards the end of the 19th century in cities like Paris tarmac was patented by Edgar Pernell hooli in 1901 and is a mix of tar and aggregate like granite chips compacted with a road roller adding small amounts of Portland cement resin and pitch modified the tar other roads were made with concrete but a speeds rose some surfaces offered better grip when wet or dry than others while extremes of temperatures made some melt or crack as oil production increased a byproduct called ash felt became available in quantity and replaced tar thanks to its reduced sensitivity to temperature roads joined villages towns and cities in all directions right across America the motorcar and specifically the Model T Ford wasn't only about personal mobility it brought home the shopping carried the doctor on house calls and a whole new industry of mechanics services garages petrol and oil supplies grew up to provide the vital provisions needed by the car for the first time Americans were able to travel more than a few miles from home inexpensively they were able to roam and explore their own country in their own cars they were able to visit the great national parks set aside for the people but which few people have been able to reach or explore the weekend getaway shooting fishing and hunting or just a day trip into the countryside with a family became not just a possibility but a reality and the vehicle used for these idyllic moments was inevitably a model see Ford people made jokes about them but in the 19 years it was in production over 15 million tin lizzies were built a record it would take the Volkswagen Beetle 27 years to beat 45 years later another famous American brand name to see three centuries is Buick who built a closed car years before Ford Buick was the mainstay of what would become General Motors despite its history and technical superiority of a century ago Buick was nearly killed off in the disastrous first decade of the 21st century but of course the motorcar has had a pivotal role from the very start in that other favorite of the American public the motion picture [Music] by 1927 the Model T had reached the end of its development and more sophisticated cars were needed so Henry Ford himself commissioned to the very first of the new Model A unlike the Model T which was only available in black the Model A was sold in four colors but not black and although it was only in production for a little over four years nearly 5 million Model A's were built Ford wasn't only a visionary engineer and a businessman he also had a keen eye for a promotion and over the years he made a point of marking his company's milestones invariably with a replica quadricycle on hand too sadly the original quadricycle the very first Ford had to be sold to finance what cam later and it was lost in the road works of history but it was this car before of model 18 but usually called simply the Ford v8 which would come to define American motoring variations on the 8 cylinder engine would become almost Universal across the u.s. motor industry the big rumbling engines would become the basis for generations of cars millions of vehicles and a national obsession with what would become known as muscle cars mr. Ford was on hand as the one millionth + 3 millionth v8 rolled out the factory door LaSalle was a very different automobile brand it wasn't built from scratch by a visionary engineer but was created to fill a gap in the market by General Motors CEO Alfred P Sloan a LaSalle could handle rough road but was intended to be a luxurious car Sloan put the company's name plates into price order Chevrolet was the entry-level brand and next came Oakland Oldsmobile Buick and Cadillac Cadillac prices soared in the 1920s and the LaSalle was intended to fill the gap that existed between it and Buick Amedeo Kassala the name vanished just thirteen years later similarly Ford produced the Lincoln as an upmarket brand for wealthy people who wouldn't be seen in anything as common as a Ford this was luxury for the passengers at least four by now professional drivers chauffeurs could be hired to deal with the increasingly heavy traffic but often they worked in a small cramped and Spartan cabin while their passengers enjoyed every luxurious feature of the age soon Ford's dream of a car in every driveway in every town and city was coming true this advert goes even further than that of you this is a great day for me having my daughter graduate an honor student Oh daddy well on just a moment look over here well how do you like it you don't mean dad easy that's really mine all yours and here are the keys Oh daddy come on girls let's go for a ride dear mother Oh a new Ford and what a lovely color such a roomy seat and now Ellen you also have the key to style leadership get the feel of v8 performance see your nearest board dealer for a ride in the quality car in the low price field not to be outdone GM's creative marketing people were busy to that everybody's ready and into the spacious luggage compartment with the bags careful that's grandma's present get in Rex you're going too and their 1940 Chevrolet will get them to their destination easily safely and with the utmost economy solid comfort and that also describes Chevrolet for 1940 with its bigger and roomier body by Fisher and perfected knee action writing system the ride royal one of Chevrolet's 175 important modern features reasons why Chevrolet's first again that same year 1940 while much of the rest of the world was in the grips of the Second World War America was celebrating its take on the world fair at Flushing Meadows in New York it was the first exposition to be based on the future with Knope nning slogan of dawn of a new day and it allowed over 44 million visitors to take a look at the world of tomorrow not surprisingly transport was a big part of both what the fair was and did it covered five square kilometres and new vehicles were both a big draw card for visitors and a headache for organizers the Ford building covering nearly 30,000 square meters was just one of the places where the u.s. motor industry was showcased inside visitors were exposed to the evolution of the car from its infancy to the then present day the time less than four decades in Ford's case the mean entrance hall is a symphony in color and a fascinating introduction to what follows here is a panorama of the motorcar League starting with the first Ford car built in 1903 and coming down to the present Ford deluxe Ford Mercury Lincoln Zephyr and Lincoln style leaders for the road of tomorrow the centerpiece was Ford's cycle of production a 30 meter turntable weighing over 150 tons and floating in over 70 thousand litres of water it used animated models to reveal how the car industry spreads employment across many sectors of society and into areas far removed from the actual car making factories the industry spreads employment back through its suppliers back to the raw materials once out of the exhibition hall visitors were invited to ride on what was dubbed the road of tomorrow we would call them flyovers and take them for granted General Motors was a conglomeration of car brands started in 1908 it would become the world's largest corporation and was the highest selling car maker in the world for 77 consecutive years from 1931 to 2008 when it lost this epithet to Toyota through the years GM has produced cars called Cadillac Elmore Oakland Buick Chevrolet daiyu GMC Holden Hummer Oldsmobile Opel Pontiac Saab Saturn and Vauxhall at its peak General Motors employed 350,000 people and operated 150 factories on 6 continents the 1940 hydra-matic oldsmobile saw another momentous step in the evolution of the automobile it was the first mass production car fitted with an automatic gearbox cadillac began working on a shiftless transmission in 1932 but oldsmobile introduced the hydra-matic because it produced more cars than cadillac at the time and to protect Cadillacs reputation if the market rejected the new transmission once the US had committed to the Second World War many industries were switched to manufacturing not just weapons but the planes trucks and ships needed by a modern fighting force the u.s. built over a hundred and fifty thousand battle tanks a quarter of a million cannons over two and a half million machine guns and two and a quarter million military trucks the war just as in the First World War prompted engineering advances at a much greater rate than in peacetime also developments in mass production that came directly from the motor industry were applied to the munitions factories and much of industrialized America became a war machine making war machines the u.s. also built over 300,000 military aircraft and Henry Ford's magic was at work here too the b-24 liberator heavy bomber was the most produced american aircraft in history with over 18,000 built ford opened Willow Run the world's largest factory outside the USSR in August 1942 there on the biggest assembly line in the world 428 b-24s a month were built the army asked a hundred and thirty-five companies for working prototypes of a four-wheel-drive reconnaissance car setting a deadline of just 49 days working without pay freelance designer Karl Probst drew up plans for the Bantam prototype in two days estimated the total cost of the vehicle and submitted a bid in five days complete with blueprints the army chose overland Willy's with Ford as the second supplier to build what became known as the Jeep after the war thousands of army surplus vehicles were spread all over the world and on weekends groups of us Jeep fans took their Hardy little vehicles out into the wilderness these weekend warriors became rampaging Ridge runners keen to put their jeeps and themselves to the test in some pretty tough terrain with none of the safety gear of today's cars the hardy passengers risked being flicked out not only from their seats but right out of the vehicles and when things got hot a cooling-off period didn't mean a seat on the sidelines but a seat in the middle of the action wet or muddy it didn't matter I passed the orange Jeep back skidding off to the old guy post-war reconstruction was harsh but by the 1950s people were looking to a bright new future and the car industry responded in kind new factories and new workers turned out new cars that just seemed to get bigger and bigger about this time American cars became irrelevant to the rest of the world and vice versa they were too big for many European cities and roads and their styling was too brash for countries still recovering from the debilitating effects of World War two in Detroit no one seemed to care they were hard at work fulfilling local demand in the 1950s the area had the highest median income and the highest rate of homeownership of any major US city four out of every five cars in the world was made in the u.s. half of them by GM no other car companies had the capital or the know-how to enter the global car business GM's main US rival Ford was half its size the largest foreign car maker Volkswagen was little bigger than GM's own German subsidiary Opel and only had one model the beetle and Toyota wasn't even on the horizon it made 23,000 cars in 1955 in Japan compared to 4 million manufactured by GM in the US but the volumes of cars being built and sold meant that despite millions spent on upgrading the roads traffic jams started slowing down average speeds for routine journeys america's solution was ever more ever bigger roads cutting across the countryside like fat black snakes linking homes and offices schools shops and factories divided roads with four or more lanes in each direction once considered more than sufficient encouraged more travelers and within a handful of years would become clogged to a virtual standstill big new roads did mean that people in outlying areas could more easily travel to find work rural dwellers could now work in industry as well as on the land their forefathers have farmed farmers once isolated from their markets could now drive there easily saving valuable daylight hours better transport meant schoolchildren could attend schools further away from home than their parents and grandparents did rural one-room schoolhouses and single teachers were replaced by big modern schools with teams of specialists teachers this meant greater challenges for growing minds and the teachers but better resources to out-of-town residents also found that owning a car meant being able to get to another American invention that probably wouldn't have happened without the motorcar the shopping mall with lots of retail outlets all in one convenient place and with convenient access and parking right outside a whole new method of shopping evolved and spelled the death knell for older retail outlets away from the rush of changes bought and wrought by the automobile an annual car show was staged by General Motors from 1949 to 1961 Motorama tried to boost sales with displays of prototypes concept cars and other special models here are some of the Motorama vehicles all of which were complete and running handmade cars that have survived over half a century to the present day the Buick XP 300 was a design exercise from 1951 and the name came from its experimental status and the 300 horsepower delivered by its supercharged v8 engine which took the car to over 220 kilometres an hour looking half a century ahead of its time the Buick ran on methanol had a heat-treated aluminium body push button seat adjustment electric windows and power jacks the 1951 LeSabre showcased very advanced ideas made of aluminium and magnesium it had a modern automatic gearbox a rain activated self-raising roof a dual fuel supercharged fuel-injected v8 engine and built-in hydraulic jacks rumored to have cost as much as a million dollars equal to 10 times that today it was used as a personal car for years by GM's head of design Harley Oh [Music] gm's experimental turbine engines went into a needle-nosed fiberglass reinforced plastic delta-winged vehicle the Firebird won four years later in 1956 the more refined for passenger Firebird 2 appeared using the first regenerative gas turbine which allowed the use of air conditioning and power steering Firebird 3 was built in 1958 a 2 passenger turbine car it had a single joystick controller replacing the steering wheel and pedals the Buick Centurion appeared at the 1956 Motorama its bodywork was made of fiberglass and its cabin was inspired by an aircraft the bubble roof was more stylish than it was practical but the swooping rear fins will appear on production cars three years later a 325 horsepower v8 engine was fitted and decades ahead of its time a television camera reported on what was behind the car to a small TV screen and the dash when the doors were opened the seat slid backwards automatically to give better access to the red leather and brushed metal interior the Buick Skylark was made in six production runs each design varied due to changing technology and tastes introduced to mark Buicks 50th anniversary the Skylark was one of three special convertibles produced in 1953 of the three the Skylark had the biggest production with 1690 units design chief Harley Earl convinced GM they needed a two-seater sports car because returning soldiers were bringing home mgs Jaguars and Alfa Romeos with his special project crew all began project Opel in 1951 the result was the hand-built ex1 2 to Corvette prototype first shown at the 1953 Motorama at the Waldorf Astoria in New York production began six months later with both a heater and radio as extra cost options the Corvette was rushed into production to capitalize on the enthusiastic public reaction to the concept car but it was underpowered and the project was almost canceled the six cylinder engine and two-speed auto gearbox one few friends concept car was used as a test mule for the v8 engine that was fitted in 1955 it is now in a museum in Atlantic City in contrast of volume selling cars were a little more ordinary getting there is a real treat when you drive Chevrolet the best-looking best driving car on the road try a handsome new gleaming new 9 passenger boville for shopping for hauling a full load of kids to a picnic you name it the boville fills the bill or step into a bel-air sport coupe a long low distinctive truly Chevrolet in design and performance you'll like Chevy's get up and go as exciting to drive as it is appealing to the eye and how easily the new Chevrolet handles a little lady a big station wagon how nicely it corners on a bumpy road Cadillacs identity as an American automotive icon was unmistakable by 1957 the cars celebrated the good life with voluptuous styling and vast chrome trims backed up with some real engineering creativity reaching into the luxury stratosphere was the 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham costing thirteen thousand and seventy four dollars one of the most interesting Cadillacs of the 1950s this low slung pillarless sedan featured Center opening doors and a roof captain brushed stainless steel one of Holly's favorite touches while standard quad headlights were in industry first the 57 Chevy was available in three models the upscale Bel Air the mid range 210 and the 150 in two-door station wagon and convertible bodies the cars image is often used in toys graphics music movies and television as typical of 1950s American cars for 57 Chevrolet dictated a series of changes that increase the cost of the car these included a new dashboard and air ducts and the headlight pods which resulted in the distinctive chrome headlights that helped make the 57 Chevy a classic 14-inch wheels gave the car a lower stance and a wide grille made it look wider from the front the famous 57 Chevy tailfins duplicated the wide look from the rear the Chevrolet Impala became the best-selling car in the United States when big models dominated the market competing against Fords Galaxie 500 and the Plymouth Fury the Impala was introduced in 1958 as a new upmarket sporty trim package created for Bel Air coupe A's and convertibles unique to the model words six taillights which set it apart from cheaper models this classic styling would become its trademark from 1958 to 65 it was Chevrolet's most expensive passenger model the Cadillac Eldorado was part of the Cadillac line from 1953 to 2002 the longest-running American luxury car range Eldorado models were always near the top of the Cadillac lineup and were among the most extravagantly style vehicles of their day the Eldorado had its own rear end styling with high slender pointed tail fins these contrasted with the thick bulbous fins common at the time an example of Eldorado pointing the way forward it was a four-door hardtop with rear hinged rear doors that cost more than the rolls-royce Silver Cloud of the same year it featured air suspension the first memory power seats and even small bottles of perfume the convertibles were the vehicle of choice for celebrities movie stars and the beautiful people of the 1950s by 1960 the American automobile industry had consolidated into the big three General Motors Ford and Chrysler and American Motors these firms not only dominated the domestic market they were supreme globally in 1960 American companies built 93 percent of the cars sold in the United States and 48 percent of world sales were by US owned subsidiaries in countries on every inhabited continent but imported cars led by Volkswagen and followed by Fiat Renault Datsun and Hill began to nibble their way into the rich American market supplying the one sort of car that America didn't build small ones the growing presence of imports disturbed Detroit and the big three responded with their own modest cars GM reduced the core fare Ford the Falcon and Chrysler the valiant then they ramped up production of the so-called muscle cars powerful sleek sports models such as the Mustang beautiful from any point of view worth more from every point of value the 1960 Ford's open up a whole wonderful new world of styling elegance and built for people comfort and now the world's most wanted car the finest of fine cars the last [Applause] I wish it were my Barr's the dream 1960 Thunderbird finally the car everyone's been waiting to see the new size here's full comfort for six adults in a car that'll give you up to 30 miles a gallon a new sized car with a new size price it's the easiest car in the world to own the Ford Falcon you can see these cars at your Ford dealers showroom now the Falcon the Thunderbird and 1964 more machines on the production line made the work easier that the motor industry was still a massive employer of manpower with car factories the end of a supply line that included thousands of workers across the country Cuba is famous for retaining its pre 1959 American cars which are kept running by any means possible since the Cuban Revolution the influx of new cars was stalled by a US trade embargo if the 1950s have been the decade of dazzl the 1960s started out by turning down the brightness the Cadillac 60 special first appeared in 1938 and like many US model names it stuck around a long time throughout the 1950s the Cadillac sixty special appeared as a stretched and optioned a version of the series 62 the 6.4 liter engine provided 325 horsepower air suspension using freon filled shock absorbers was optional on the 60 special the 1960 model saw new shorter rear fins and the cleaner side trim design as well as a rear grille design shared with Eldorado wheelbase remained 130 inches in a car 225 inches long and the 6220 $3.00 price was the same as in 1959 also new for 1960 was a vinyl roof covering as standard big changes were made for the 1960 Buicks which lost the brand's trademark huge canted DeltaWing fins and slanted quad headlamps the more subdued grille had concave vertical bars and quad headlights now sat side by side tailfins were integrated into the overall profile there up a line extending to the windscreen General Motors needed to counter Ford's Thunderbird and decided it should look like a rolls-royce with a hint of Ferrari the result the 1963 buick riviera it was a styling milestone a blend of curves and sharp lines the Riviera's engineering was new from the ground up independent rear suspension and disc brakes were ruled out by maintenance and reliability issues so special bushings gave the 1963 riviera smooth ride and finned aluminum brake drums were specified ford's revolutionary mustang was initially based on the falcon introduced in april 1964 the Mustang is ford's most successful launch since the Model A the prototype was a two-seater mid-engined roadster using a German v8 engine for broader appeal it became a four-seat car with front bucket seats and a rear bench cadillac had a great 1965 making 200,000 cars the budget series 62 fixture since 1940 was renamed Calais El Dorado and the 60 special were officially Fleetwood's like series 75 a body change gave the 65 s a longer lower silhouette with flat fins though a hint remained a new straight back bumper and vertical lamps the headlight pairs switched to vertical with a wider grille though Cadillacs v8 was unchanged the slightly lighter 65 s offered the luxury markets best power-to-weight ratio a fully adjustable steering column and dual driving range turbo hydra-matic transmission were fitted and all models came with a new sonically balanced exhaust system 1965 potential of 800 cars per day was an all-time high and the three millionth Cadillac was built the Pontiac Lamar was a compact and intermediate sized model sold from 1962 to 1981 in 64 the Lamar became available with a new performance package designated as the GTO the GTO option was priced at just under $300 more and included a larger v8 from the full-size Pontiac line that put up 325 or 335 horsepower a four-speed floor shift manual transmission and heavy duty suspension in the late 60s Pontiacs GTO was the definitive muscle car available as a two-door hardtop or convertible nothing rivaled the GTOs new energy-absorbing Endura bumper which was molded and color keyed to form the cars clean new nose and hidden headlamps so popular that few realised there were actually options the steering transmitted road shock and had little field and some sheetmetal wasn't the stoutest but in the treacherous muscle car jungle the new GTO remained one of the beat cats the Chevrolet Camaro was designed as a competitor for the Ford Mustang sharing its platform and major parts with the Pontiac Firebird automotive media asked Chevrolet product managers what is a Camaro and we're told it was a small vicious animal that eats Mustangs the Camaro debuted in September 1966 and was available as a 2-door 2+2 coupe a or convertible but 250 cubic inch inline 6-cylinder engine or v8s between 302 cubic inch and the 396 cubic inch engine used in the SS a revamp of the original 1967 body created unique styling for just this season carried onto the 1970 model when production problems delayed the redesigned next generation Camaro the Super Sport or SS added about $300 to a Camaro and included stiffer suspension and bigger tires power front disc brakes and a non-functional bonnet port an extra $79 bought a new bonnet with its functional rear facing Inlet cherrywood foot an L 78 with aluminium heads of these 311 went into Camaros Chevy worked to improve the big-block Camaro rear suspension but the 396 had so much weight over the nose that the rear axle struggled to get the power down savvy owners tackled the problem with traction kits but less than 14,000 were really built the 1970s proved to be a decade of tumultuous change for the automobile industry in the United States caught first and the economic turmoil of high interest rates high inflation and price control and then in the energy crises of 1973 and 79 the car industry bore the brunt of the changes brought upon the US economy in addition to the domestic economic situation US car makers also faced a changed international market with more competition from foreign manufacturers the decade started badly with a paralyzing strike by the United Auto Workers Union during 1970 as a result production at the four major manufacturer General Motors Ford Chrysler and AMC dropped by 1 million vehicles 10% below 1969 figures in addition to the strike car makers were faced with a buying public that was increasingly focused on safety and fuel economy two aspects which had not previously featured very highly in design criteria performance had been the prime focus of u.s. car marketing exemplified by muscle cars like the Mustang Camaro and Firebird but everything changed in the 1970s as the 73 oil crisis exhaust emissions control rules increasingly good and very affordable Japanese and European imports and stagnant homegrown innovation dealt the American industry blow after blow ironically full-size sedans staged a comeback in the years between the energy crises with badges like Cadillac and Lincoln staging their best sales years ever in the late 1970s small performance cars from BMW Toyota and Nissan took the place of America's big engined cars but the near monopolistic conditions in the American car market bred complacency and the assumption that the American lead in technology and marketing was unassailable previously US firms that largely resisted innovation in the design and manufacture of cars preferring to make money by increasing the size and weight of their vehicles by adding extras like air conditioning power steering and fancy sound systems compensating with bigger and bigger engines it was European manufacturers who developed disc brakes rack and pinion steering and diesel engines and took the lead in building safer more efficient vehicles and the mass production techniques upon which the US industry so depended stifled innovation because it was so expensive to introduce fundamentally new models on the back of to oil crises imports of Japanese cars into the u.s. soared in the 1980s to the dismay of the US companies and the workers unions alike taking nearly one quarter of the US market and when the US car makers pressured the US government into limiting imports from Japan Toyota Anderson started building car plants in the US by 2005 these Japanese transplants would be producing 4 million cars a year 1/4 of us output and more than GM the u.s. car companies tried and failed to design a competitive small car if the 1980s was a decade of fear the 1990s represented a false dawn with oil back at $18 a barrel US companies thought they have the answer to the Japanese threat the sport utility vehicle as like trucks SUVs enjoyed a 25% import tariffs and escaped government rules to boost fuel efficiency SUV sales soared from 1 to 4 million with 60% of the big 3 sales and nearly all their profits coming from SUVs but as fuel prices rose SUV sales slumped and demand for smaller vehicles rose again but Detroit didn't have any to sell [Music] the Cadillac CTS is a midsize luxury sports sedan and later a station wagon to launched in 2002 and credited with reinvigorating the Cadillac brand it marked a return to rear-wheel drive cars and was the first Cadillac to be offered with a manual transmission since 1988 sales were a sharp improvement over its predecessors and the CTS received the North American Car of the Year award for 2002 perhaps proving that poetry in motion wasn't a dead art in America the Chevrolet SS concept car was revealed in 2003 but was never approved for official production a 4-door 4 seater sports sedan the rear doors are almost invisible the SS used an all-aluminium six liter v8 engine rated at at 430 horsepower which offers displacement on demand the system which effectively shuts down a large portion of the engine when full power is not required the system saves some fuel but cuts emissions appreciably the suspension attached the aluminium chassis of the SS was tuned for performance rather than comfort and emphasized its sporting characteristics the chassis features driver adjustable shocks to change the damping ratio ESS driver could tune the chassis for a softer setting during the week and dial in more performance for crack use on weekends powerful wheel arches housed 21 inch front and 22 inch rear aluminium wheels and the SS also includes side gills through fascia dual exhaust and the brushed stainless steel panel surrounding the sporty round tail lamps the design is a mix of styles and styling cues from both modern sports cars and muscle cars from the heyday of the u.s. car industry General Motors went broke in the global financial crisis in the first decade of the 21st century the US government bailed out the company with fifty billion dollars financing bankruptcy restructuring mass layoffs plant closures and billions of dollars in debt wiped out but while the past is where we've come from it is in the future that we will live the Chevrolet Volt is a viable plug-in electric hybrid vehicle for the first forty miles the Volt runs on the theum ion batteries but when the batteries run down a small petrol engine recharges them extending the volts range to more than 300 miles unlike most hybrid electric cars the Volt is driven only by its electric motor although it's slightly older the hydrogen drive by wire or high wire fuel cell concept car is a long way from series production although in 2003 GM said that it was confident it could produce a commercially viable model by 2010 the car runs on hydrogen fuel cells to create electricity and uses a drive by wire control system the cars power system and single electric motor are built into a flat chassis like a skateboard which lowers the cars center of gravity with the drive and energy storage systems in the skateboard the passenger compartment can be a four-door sedan minivan or even interchangeable all using the same drive system the drive-by-wire system allows the controls to be operated from either of the front seats the high wires fuel cell produces 94 kilowatts of power continuously and up to 129 kilowatts for short periods in is supplied with hydrogen from three tanks in the chassis and electric motor gives the 1,800 kilogram vehicle a top speed of 100 miles now hydrogen the most common element in the universe almost certainly holds the key to future energy needs but the vehicles that use it will look nothing like the cars that have come from America over the last century the American wrote it the freedom it gives me you've only to get in your car and stop driving to feel it the American Road what magnificent vistas open up before us as we travel along it we have come a long way since the quadricycle and the Model T these short years our whole way of life has changed we have accomplished much but the achievements to come will dwarf our own the American roads stretches ahead of its board the new horizon we are all traveling along that road all moving forward toward the NIMH and better tomorrow [Music] [Applause] [Music] you you

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Keywords: autos, automobiles, planes, trains, machinery, history, about, transportation, vehicles, Henry Ford (Organization Leader), Ford Motor Company (Automobile Company), Oldsmobile (Automobile Make), Vehicle (Product Category), driving, highway, parking lot, United States Of America (Country), Transport (Website Category), General Motors (Business Operation), cars, Drive

Id: 1EHshqHpIzE

Length: 51min 33sec (3093 seconds)

Published: Wed May 13 2015

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