Automotive Battles

Podcast Episode: 0267
What are some of the best fights in the automotive world

       ​What if the automotive industry is a never-ending battlefield driven by rivalry and ambition? Join us, as I uncover the epic tales of innovation that have shaped the world of cars. From Mercedes' pioneering victory with the combustion engine to Henry Ford's grand vision that brought automobiles to the masses, this episode reveals the intense battles that have defined the industry. 

      ​Rivalries and battles. We all have them. We get them when we're little, especially between siblings. Sibling rivalries are just kicking around. But it's not until you get to school that you really get that battlefield. As Pat Benatar said it, you know, love is a battlefield. We're not saying that love will conquer and move above all of this, but it is a battlefield, and our love for the automotive industry and a multitude of different models and cars creates the ultimate battlefield for a marketplace. And within it, every car company is always vying for that next big thing. And because one company decides to go outside of the norm and create a brand-new market or model and take the world by storm, everybody else wants to jump on their heels and make money off of it. Soon enough, a battle ensues and we start to see what the markets can give us as competition moves into play. In the end one will conquer and the others will fall, and in this battlefield the automotive marketplace only one will survive. And today AutoLooks is going to take a look at the automotive battlefield.
 
       Welcome back to the AutoLooks podcast. I'm your host, as always, the doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net, if you’d been there, stop by, check it out. Read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings. Go to the corporate links website page. Big or small, we have them all car companies from around the globe, all available in one centralized location that is AutoLooks.net. The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net.
 
      So, like I said in the beginning, the automotive battlefield. There's always a battle within the automotive marketplace, whether it be between companies or products, there's always a battle going on. And this dates back to the very beginning of the automotive industry. And we're going all the way back now. You have to remember. Mercedes essentially created the automotive world as we know it with the internal combustion engine put together by Heinrich Daimler and Gerald D. Benz their flywheel and piston driven motors together, created the internal combustion engine as we know it today. Although in this battlefield only one of them triumphed, Mercedes is still kicking around. Yeah, Daimler, you could fight with me is still actually kicking around. You can still see their products. Hell, they're still used by the British monarchs. But in all reality, out of these two, Mercedes takes the win for winning the battle of the original automotive markets. Sure, they don't own the markets today and they're not the biggest automotive car company in the world, but they won the day at the very beginning to become the first major automotive corporation around. 

      Well, fast forward into the teen years and Henry Ford decides to try and bring cars to the masses. He was a visionary. He saw that the automobile could be something to take hold of the entire world, and when he first left his house just outside of high school, he walked into town only a few miles and it took him forever. By the time he came home he drove and it only took mere minutes. He managed to change the world and with that he built this massive corporation, built the automotive industry and the world as we know it on wheels. So naturally, with that going on, there's always somebody who wants a piece of the pie. Ford couldn't hold on to this entire market by itself forever. You knew somebody was going to jump into bed with this. Louis Chevrolet tried to do it with the Chevrolet products. Fortunately, he wasn't all the world's greatest and eventually succumbed to William C Durant buying him out along with others like Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac. Funny thing about Cadillac is Cadillac was actually created by Henry Ford when he was outed from Ford Motor Company. Now how he got it back is actually one of the most ingenious ways ever.
 
      So, Henry Ford has a major battle. At the very beginning he didn't have the capital to try and create his car company, so he naturally had to go to the banks and get loans. In this sense, the banks owned him, so they can call the shots. Well, he didn't like that, because he wanted to grow and innovate. He wanted to build his empire and the banks were holding him back. So not too long into the original creation of the Ford Motor Company, they outed him. The Model T was going like crazy. Everybody was buying cars.
 
        Well, Mr. Henry Ford had another idea. He decided to fight back and launch his own battle against them. He created his own new car company, the Henry Ford Motor Company, and along with his son Edsel, they hit the stock market. Well, they drummed up tons of interest for their new automotive venture and with it his board members started selling off their shares in Ford Motor Company. At the backside, henry was taking that money and buying his way back into his own company. The second, he achieved controlling stake in the Ford Motor Company. He kicked the rest of the board out and took over his empire once again. The second he achieved controlling stake in the Ford Motor Company. He kicked the rest of the board out and took over his empire once again. The battle ensued and Henry won the day. But this battle was not over. Like I said, William C Durant was slowly building his own empire. Now he did have his own car company, a Durant Motor Company, which really didn't take off. But it gave him the buying power to slowly move into bed with companies like Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Marquette, LaSalle and slowly build an empire.
 
      He saw that the automotive marketplace wasn't just a one-phase product. He saw a growing demand from a multitude of different parts of the marketplace. Henry Ford was going after everyone who could purchase a vehicle. He was building cars at the bare minimum for entry-level products. Well, that's all good and dandy. You set the world on fire and essentially put us all on wheels. But Durant wanted to own every other marketplace further up the chain. See, Mercedes was still sitting at the top end of the luxury automotive marketplace. They were the top tier, like Rolls-Royce and Bentley. There was Duesenberg’s. Well, Durant wanted to be there too, and by buying out all kinds of different car companies within the marketplace, he started setting his own price points to make cars only go to a specific end and then the next models would take in the next price point. This is all outlined in our podcast the divisions of the big three where we actually talk about the multitude of different automotive divisions that the big three have owned over their long lifespans. But his battle eventually pushed henry ford to make the mercury division and the Lincoln division, because he needed to fight General Motors, and that's multitude of different divisions hitting every single market. Unfortunately, they were a little too late to the game and General Motors won the day.
 
      By the 1940s, GM was the top of the automotive food chain in the American marketplace and for a long time they owned over 50% of the American automotive market, with companies like American Motors, Chrysler Corporation and Ford Motor Company fighting for that other remaining 50%. The battle would ensue, and for the other companies to try and get in they would have to fight them on a level playing field with products. They would have to get in there before General Motors even thought of it. Well, 1964, ford decided to do that by utilizing their falcon platform. They wanted to create a sports car for the masses. Knowing about the baby boomers and the fact that this was a biggest group of young adults going through a generational gap like it's literally this giant blip going through a snake. It's a huge bulge. There are tons of kids. Ford saw this before it started taking shape Now. 

​       The same year, General Motors was working on putting a big block motor in a standard product, with the GTO created by none other than John Zachary DeLorean. Now that big, burly power plant in that vehicle would showcase raw power to the masses. Ford would take a little while to get into this because they were working on their Mustang, their pony car. But Dodge eventually stepped in and said no, we're not going to let you take this, and they came in with the Charger. Now this battle would go on for decades and the Charger would fall by the wayside with the GTO carrying on. Unfortunately, the Charger would eventually come back as a sedan and its name would hold true to what originally was a powerful, large vehicle. Now it was a sedan, not a coupe, but it was still powerful and, in the end, when the GTO was brought back here as a Holden Monaro basically badges upon a GTO. It couldn't hold its own against the powerful Dodge Charger. Hell, the Mercury Marauder couldn't even fight against the Charger sedan and the Charger won the day, kind of like the Mustang.
 
       The Mustang was built for this brand-new giant blip going through the generations. The baby boomers wanted to have fun, but not all of them could afford it. So, Ford released the mustang in 1964. Quickly, following their heels, General Motors put his best team onto. It had both Chevrolet and Pontiac working together to get their trans am and Camaro out. A couple years later dodge would finally follow suit. Same with Plymouth, with the Cuda and Challenger counterparts. They would come in and blow the doors off everyone, but in the end only one would survive. And today the Mustang is still the only original pony car that's been in continuous production since it launched.
 
       The reigning world king of muscle cars and pony cars is the Mustang. It never left us. The Camaro can say oh you know we came back and we're celebrating our 40th anniversary. Yeah, but you guys disappeared for like eight years. You can't say that. And now they're gone again. The Challenger disappeared, came back as a Mitsubishi model in the 80s that most of us don't even want to remember before it came back in a big way to try and gobble up sales. But the baby boomers were coming through in their retirement days and the second wave of the retro inspiration was going through. That battle would come back to us, but yet again the Mustang would reign king. 

      ​Like we said, throughout history there's been a lot of automotive battles. Willys couldn't make the Jeep alone, so they used Bantam and they even commissioned Ford to help build the original Jeep for military spec in World War II. At the end, Willys became their own car company and released the Jeep to the masses. Seeing how many people were actually purchasing the Jeep for their cottages or camps, as I like to call them going up to the camp or cabin or cottage, whatever you call it, going for a beach ride, backwoods exploring Jeeps became the main vehicle around the world. Well, Ford couldn't leave that alone and around the same time they created the Mustang, Ford released the Bronco onto the world stage as well and the Bronco became the main competition for the Jeep Wrangler, or essentially, back in those days, just the Jeep.

​       Now this is a battle that would go on forever until the mid-Wrangler, or essentially back in those days, just the Jeep. Now this is a battle that would go on forever, until the mid-90's. Not too long after OJ had his chase in his white Bronco Did the actual Bronco model disappear, getting replaced by the Expedition. Well, jeep never disappeared and instead stuck around. They've been here since the 1940s, they're still kicking and they've won the SUV battle. Now the SUV battle is starting to heat up once again, with the return of the Bronco, Toyota really starting to push their Land Cruisers, Nissan considering bringing back the Xterra to go up against it, and a multitude of Chinese competition, especially from BAIC. There are tons of more competition because people see this marketplace as a growing space, kind of like the pony cars back in the late 60s and 70s. But those are just models. 

​        Sometimes car companies pick fights with each other as well. The greatest battle in automotive history is the one between Ferruccio Lamborghini and Enzo Ferrari. If you haven't watched either the Ferrari movie or the Lamborghini movie, you don't understand this battle, hell. If you haven't watched either the Ferrari movie or the Lamborghini movie, you don't understand this battle, hell. If you haven't done any research on it. Trust me, go back and look at this.
 
        Ferruccio built tractors and he loved his Ferraris, but he found problems with them. He was somebody who aspired to create the best products out there. He built a tractor for the working man that he could literally beat the crap out of and it would still keep going. Well, his Ferraris. He loved them. He bought tons of them, had them in tons of different colors, but he found problems with them overheating constantly. Well, one day he decided to throw one of his tractor radiators underneath the hood to keep his Ferrari from overheating. He quickly found out that this bigger radiator from his tractor, made for industrial use, kept his Ferrari cold and kept it going. Well, he wouldn't just sit back. No, no, no. He wanted to go to Enzo himself and tell him about this, and tell him that he loves his cars, but he wants to help him make them the best in the world.
 
        Well, Enzo was a stubborn man. He didn't like to listen to anybody. His products were the best in the world. And if you watch the movie Rush or even done any research on Nicki Lauda and the fact that he called Ferraris crap until he rebuilt them and put them together, you'll understand that Enzo didn't like many people. Nicki stood up to him and he really didn't give two craps about it, and he proved to him right in front of him that he can make it better.
 
        Ferruccio couldn't do that. No, he just wanted to set a meeting with them to go over this product. Well, Enzo didn't care about that, he just told him to go back to making his tractors and leave him alone. That wasn't going to appease Ferruccio, and with this he was literally going to set the stage and create his own supercar to go up against all Ferraris. He eventually did it and for a while, Lamborghini was growing and showing the world that you don't need to buy a Ferrari because Lamborghini doesn't have a rigorous background check. See Ferraris.
 
         To buy them, there's a very specific line and by telling you this, I'm probably going to get banned from ever owning a Ferrari in my life. But you literally have to get your name put on specific lists. There are specific things you can do and when you purchase your vehicle, there's only specific ones you could start with. So, as of right now, I would have to go out and buy something like a California or a Ramona to get myself into the Ferrari stable. I can't just go out right now and buy myself an F80. Even if I had tons of money, I could win a lottery of a billion dollars tomorrow, go up to the Ferrari plant and say I want to buy an F80. They're like, okay, where'd you have 40? where's your 50? where's your Enzo and where's your LaFerrari? Well, I don't own any of those. Sorry, you're not making it on the list. It's an exclusive club, one that Lamborghini doesn't have. You got the money; you can buy it Now.
 
        Today, Ferrari, you know, kind of breaking itself away from Fiat and being back on its own, kind of won the day, because Lamborghini is now owned by Volkswagen, a company that also at one point in time owned Bugatti, so this ties into it, but it's more owned by Rimac now. So, essentially, Ferrari won the day. They beat Lamborghini, but Lamborghini proved to them that you can make their cars better by them putting their vehicles out there. They kept Ferrari on their heels, constantly looking for ways to better their products over the competition, because before that there was no competition. They thought their vehicles were the best out there. The only thing that ever came close to Ferrari's in the early days were Maserati’s, which is funny because that's originally where Enzo started out, between Maserati and Alfa Romeo. The first Ferrari was a rebranded Alfa Romeo, built by Enzo, so he got to start with the competition to build competition. He beat the competition in the end. Maserati and Alfa Romeo today are nearly a shell of what they once were, kind of like Lancia. 

       ​One of the greatest battles in the racing world came between Lancia and Audi, the Stratos and the Quattro. Lancia had built something that was amazing. Amazing looking wedge design of the Stratos put rallying on a world scale. And then Lancia eventually came back with the Delta. But Audi had other plans with its Quattro Put a four-wheel drive system from a truck underneath a car and go flying through the backcountry. Well, Audi would win that day eventually, but also get taken down a notch when Mitsubishi and Subaru got into bed. Today I guess you could say Hyundai and Toyota are winning the battle of the WRC world with Subaru, Mitsubishi, Audi, even Lancia, all but gone. Lancia is now coming back with the new Ypsilon, but it's still going to take some time to grow themselves in the end WRC world. No one has really won the day in that portion of the automotive world. They may win for a short amount of time but they don't overtake, not like the battle of the full-size trucks.
 
        Honda, essentially, was one of the first Japanese companies to create a pickup truck for the American marketplace. Now we get it. Toyota had the Tacoma, the T100. Nissan had the Frontiers, Mazda even had the B-Series way back in the day, and Mitsubishi. Well, they shared stuff with Ram. But Honda, when they created the Ridgeline, gave us something a little bit more different, a crossover utility vehicle, a vehicle that hadn't been seen since the El Camino, and we all know that's one of the greatest battles, where the Ford Ranchero set the stage and created the market for the original crossover utility trucks. In the end, the El Camino won the day as the longest living one, outliving the ranchero and the very short-lived rampage yeah, both the Honda crossover utility truck.
 
        That market was a growing market around the world, but in north America people weren't really looking at it. It really wasn't until ford and Hyundai started jumping into bed and creating the Santa Cruz and the Maverick that people started to see the Ridgeline as the king of crossover utility trucks. Sure, it looked more girly on the front, but so what? It was here, and it was here first. Only on a second design generation, the Ridgeline is still kicking it and still holding its own against the new competition line is still kicking it and still holding its own against the new competition Now, with Dodge and Chevrolet even thinking of getting into this marketplace. The crossover utility truck market in North America is about to become more crowded. And who's going to win the day? That's actually a future that we can't see just yet. 

      ​But getting back to our trucks, the full-size truck market. We all know the F-150 always fights to try and take down both GM and Chevrolet and the RAM products. For full-size truck supremacy Beats it for sales all the time. The release of the Lightning the Lightning sold more than its General Motors counterparts as well, and Dodge never even released their electric pickup truck. But you have to remember if you're going with just standard 1500 pickup trucks. Toyota and Nissan also had their own. Toyota is in the third generation; Nissan is essentially on its second. Both released right around the same time.
 
      Toyota and Nissan are the biggest rivals in the Japanese marketplace. Honda's big and knows what they're doing, but they stay in the markets that they're comfortable with. Mitsubishi is all over the place. It's got its highs; it's got its lows. Right now, it's sitting in a low where it can only go up or it could fizzle out. Mazda is trying to claw its way into a premium marketplace. Suzuki is just happy with its small car mentality, kind of like the Daihatsu and Isuzu. Well, they're in the trucks. But Nissan and Toyota want to be the only full lineup products from the Japanese marketplace, and in North America trucks are king.
 
       Well, when Toyota stated they're going to bring out the Tundra, Nissan stated they're going to bring out the Titan. And not just with that, Toyota decided to bring out the Sequoia. Where Nissan brought out the Pathfinder Armada, they both fought and even with Lexus and Infinity counterparts it was back and forth between this. Today Toyota reigns supreme in the full-size Japanese marketplace where Nissan has scaled itself back. The Titan isn't the world's biggest truck, they know it. And now, with major financial problems within the corporation, they got to pull back from specific markets, pull out of other ones altogether. But Toyota built its Tacoma mentality into a full-size pickup truck. When they started with their full-size pickup truck it wasn't even a full size, it was more like a three-quarter ton. It wasn't all there. But now the Titan I mean the Tundra goes up against the entry level or standard products of the F-150, the Silverado, the Sierra and the RAM. It's there. It hasn't taken over because it hasn't moved into that commercial side with the diesels yet. But when it comes to Japanese full-size pickup trucks, it's the only one that has proved itself to be a viable product, kind of like the Supra, RX-7 and 350Z. The Z is the only continuous selling product. The Supra has tried to move up and the RX-7 isn't even back yet. 

     ​But one of the greatest battles you could talk about is the one between not just car companies but aftermarket divisions that were brought underneath the umbrella of an automotive corporation AMG and the M-Series. When it's either other's birthday they salute the competition and are glad to have them around. Each one tries to outdo the other constantly. There is no winner in the AMG and M, but together they keep the RS version of Audis or even the V of Cadillac or Blackwing as it is now in the back stable. How Toyota can't even win the day in the aftermarket luxury industry with TRD or even GR. AMG and M reign supreme in the aftermarket luxury world and they hold on to that kind of like. The RT nameplate has beaten out SVT and the SS Because the SS has moved into a more standard table for products, one step up from the RS. Chevrolet really doesn't promote it. But on RT you got a bit more, and if it's SRT, you got the top.
 
       See, all over the automotive universe, there's tons and tons of battles. Minivans have had them, wagons have had them, coupes, sports cars, supercars, hypercars Every single market has had these automotive battles where there's essentially two products or two companies. They're at the top, constantly fighting back and forth. Sometimes there's a winner, sometimes they just learn to coincide with each other, like the Mustang took over for the pony cars, but AMG and M work together. There's a winner. Sometimes they just learn to coincide with each other, like the mustang took over for the pony cars, but AMG and M work together. Well, not essentially together, but essentially work together in their marketplaces. They're there, they exist. But to create a battle to set the stage for a new one, you have to think outside the box. 

       ​Chrysler was doing this around the turn of the century, when they started releasing products like bringing back the 300 nameplates, giving us the Prowler and giving us one last retro inspiration, the PT Cruiser, a car that everybody loves to hate. Well, Chevrolet couldn't let Chrysler own this full retro market. Where they failed with the SSR, they were going to try and succeed with the HHR Now worst possible name you can have for a vehicle and in the end the PT would win the day. The HHR would actually last, but a year longer than the PT Cruiser in the marketplace, but it wouldn't win the day because in today's mentality people only remember the PT Cruiser, just like everybody still remembers the Plymouth Prowler and we remember it as a Plymouth product, not a Chrysler product. And if we think back to sports cars in the 1990s, everybody remembers 240SXs, all thanks to drifting. You can go back and you can remember the MR2s, but do you remember the 200SX?
 
       No, one company will come out ahead and everybody always tries to create a new part of the marketplace. Essentially, when you create a winner, everybody wants in and in. The automotive world is not like the drug world. So, you create a new drug, you have a leniency. You have a few years where you're the only one who owns the entire marketplace. That's the reason why it took so long for you to get competition for Viagra. Because Viagra comes out and they hold it, because these companies need to make all this money back. So, they hold off the competition. Don't allow anyone else in. This is done by patent offices, but when that expires, the floodgates are opened and everybody gets in and the automotive world. The only thing that holds them back is if a vehicle comes out, takes the world by storm and nobody had any intel while the project was going on.
 
      Kind of like the Mustang and the Caravan, the first products can get out, take hold of the entire marketplace and, as long as they change just as the competition comes in to maintain their leadership role, they can hold on to the market and win the battle before it even starts. The Caravan in Town and Country proved that, because I remember when I was a kid going to places like Six Flags and seeing everyone coming in and all the minivans and all the different variations the Nissan Quest, the Mercury Villager, a Ford Windstar, Toyota Sienna, Honda Odyssey, Mazda MPVs Everyone had a minivan Hell, even Hyundai and Kia had them. But in the end, we only remember the caravan. It came in, it took the marketplace and it held it and if you can manage to do that, you can win the day and the automotive battlefield. That is the greatest achievement and being the car that lives through it, the Ranchero created its marketplace, but the El Camino won the battle. 

       It's not always who gets there first, it's who makes the marketplace more memorable to who can win this automotive battle, Ferrari, with its exclusive list, have managed to keep money coming in at a steady stream. Lamborghini building, for anybody will go through highs and lows and with that, mismanagement and financial collapse. Sometimes exclusivity can be the key to winning the battle. Sometimes holding back mass production can make your product that much more desirable and you can win the battle overall. So, jumping into the marketplace and making thousands upon thousands of them right away eventually can kill you in the end. Creating wait lists can sometimes help you win the battle. Now, if it's an entry-level product, don't even think of trying to do that, because people at that price point aren't going to wait two years for a cheap economy car to come to their driveway. No, they're looking now. But somebody that's spending millions is willing to wait. So, the battle is literally fought on the backside in the end. The automotive battles of the world have kind of shaped the automotive marketplace, giving us some great products and some great stories. Like we said, Ferruccio and Enzo, the Mustang and the Camaro, ford and GM, AMG and the M brand, Nissan and Toyota They've all created so many great battles in the automotive marketplace and the greatest thing about these, it becomes a part of automotive history, because even the battles are something that we'll remember.
 
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       The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over to email at AutoLooks.net. After you've clicked the like, after you've subscribed, done all that stuff, stop by the website, read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings. Go to the corporate links website page. Like we said, big or small, we have them all car companies from around the globe all available on one distinct website that is the AutoLooks.net website. So, like we said, if you like this, share it with your friends, send it out, click the subscribe and follow us, because after that there's nothing much more. And for myself, Everett Jay, the whole team at the Ecomm Entertainment Group and PodBean.com, strap yourself in for this one fun wild ride that the automotive battlefield is going to take us on. 

Everett J.
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