Jeep vs Bronco | Engine Trouble | 2

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2024

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It’s 1965 and as the Bronco bucks onto the market, the Jeep boosts its engine power in hopes of catching up. But by the 1970s, the Jeep’s owner, the American Motor Company, has a new strategy: beat the Bronco by going bigger. AMC introduces the massive Jeep Cherokee, jump starting an arms race. Next, Bronco also goes big. Then, Jeep goes even bigger, and more luxurious, with the Grand Cherokee.

As the 1990s arrive, the rugged Bronco is falling out of favor with consumers. But it spends one more wild moment in the spotlight when a white Bronco leads a low-speed police chase on live television. Its passenger is murder suspect O.J. Simpson.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wundery Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of Business Wars, ad free right now.
0:06.0	Join Wundery 1964 in the Mojave
0:24.0	It's the summer of 1964 in the Mojave Desert. A blistering noontime sun beats down on a team of Ford engineers.
0:28.2	The team spent all morning out in the middle of nowhere, road testing three vehicles.
0:32.8	Two are made by Ford's competitors, an international harvester scout and a Jeep CJ-5.
0:39.4	The third is a Ford prototype of a four-wheel drive lightweight truck. They call it the
0:45.2	Bronco. Team leader Paul Axelrad pops the hood on the Bronco and peers
0:50.4	inside. After a couple of minutes the black-haired 45-year-old
0:54.5	slams the hood shut, wipes his brow, and turns to address his fellow engineers.
0:59.3	Well the bronco seems to be holding up in the heat.
1:02.9	Drive train looks great.
1:04.8	But let's kick it up a notch.
1:07.6	Let's see how it tackles a downhill ride.
1:10.2	The engineer's nod in agreement.
1:12.3	Two of them clamber into the bronco, while two others bored the jeep.
1:16.0	Axelrad and a German-born engineer named Hans get into the scout.
1:21.0	Hey Hans, head over to that rock ledge.
1:23.6	You see it over there?
1:24.6	We'll just go down beyond that.
1:26.6	Hans's eyes widen with worry.
1:29.4	That must be a 30 degree slope.
1:31.4	Are you sure about this, Paul?? Yeah I think we can handle it. Let's go.
	...

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