I love that you love your Ford; I’m just a Chevy Guy.

Chevy vs. Ford? / This epic battle of brands has been going on for as long as I can remember, and I am sure the ongoing rivalry has contributed both good and bad aspects to the industry. Let’s travel back to 1905 and the early part of the 20^th century to the beginning of the rivalry that would achieve immortal status.

Henry Ford would begin revolutionizing the World with the Model T; however, at the same time, a gentleman named Will Durant was fired by General Motors and decided to team up with a race car driver named Louis Chevrolet. Ford Motor Company was the first brand founded in 1903. In 1911, Chevrolet was branded as Will Durant to finically take over General Motors, making Chevrolet a part of their line and with Billy Durant naming his company Chevrolet Motor Company. This combination made them legitimate competition for Ford as Ford was currently on top-selling thousands of Model T’s.

Different Corporate Structures made the rivalry grow more as Henry Ford structured Ford Motor Company into more of a family-run business that would be one of the biggest family-owned businesses in the World. Ford’s grandson would become president of the company in 1945, and the company remained privately owned until 1956 when Henry Ford II took the company public.

Will {Billy} Durant would buy out Louis Chevrolet and use his earnings from Louis to become and acquire the largest shareholder of General Motors in 1916, allowing him to acquire control of General Motors, making himself the chairman and then merging Chevy into GM as a new subsidiary company. General Motors remained a public company and, in turn, acquired other automotive companies and started new ones like Pontiac, Cadillac, and Oldsmobile.

Both Chevy and Ford have excelled at designing sporty, fun, and affordable cars, with the Model T or the “Tin Lizzie” being very affordable in 1908, at the luxury price tag of $825.00. The Model T was a very basic car that ran on 4-cylinders, and Henry Ford resisted any efforts to upgrade, replace anything with his most beloved Model T. Durant and Chevy sighting this as an opportunity as they introduced their first production car in 1912 as the” classic six “and offering a six-cylinder engine. In addition to this, they provided the lower-end price Royal Mail roadster, and to capture the budget-friendly and luxury market, the Baby Grand touring car was released. In 1916 Chevrolet offered the 490, the vehicle that would be a direct rival for Henry Ford and the Model T. The Chevy 490 was a huge success with a price tag of $550-$750.The sales of the Chevy 490 would make Durant enough to buy out all General Motors.

Ford would finally produce its second vehicle, the Model A, around 1929, hit by the Great Stock Market Crash with declining sales and ensuing the Great Depression.

Both iconic companies were key in the design of the modern pick-up truck we know and love today. Ford introduced its Model TT in 1917, and of course, Chevy followed suit in 1918 with the Chevy One-ton or Model T {not the same as Ford}. It was meant to be an affordable and flexible platform for customers and a no-frills vehicle, unlike today’s line. Today’s bar has its own truck rivalry with Chevy’s Silverado Full-size pick-up and Ford’s F-150 pick-up truck, which is currently and has been the best-selling vehicle in the US since 1981 and another iconic addition to the brand the tag line built “Ford Tough” Both are very comparable to price, reliability, performance, and comfort while Ford ranks higher. However, based on research numbers, Chevy trucks last longer than Ford Trucks within the 200,000-mile list. In 2019 rankings, Chevy overall was listed as having a better safety record than Ford, and the iconic Mustang takes home the best-selling two-door American sports car vs. the Chevy Camaro.

Iconic Logos

Both Ford Motor Company and Chevrolet Motor Company helped pioneer many innovations over the years, including corporate branding. 1907 Ford Motor Company would adopt its script logo, and Chevy was creating its classic bowtie in 1913. The Ford logo would simply be FORD in script on the oval background. The bowtie for Chevrolet would come about while the Durant’s were vacationing in Hot Springs, Virginia; according to Durant’s widow, he found a design in a newspaper at breakfast one morning and just simply stated, “I think this would be a good emblem for Chevrolet.” Both logos are recognized around the World, and a new car or truck from Chevrolet with the bowtie logo is sold every 6 seconds around the World.

Muscle Mania

The muscle war between the blue oval and bowtie brands has dominated racetracks, drag strips, and everyday roadways and has produced some total badass performance.

The first performance muscle car to be introduced will go to the GM family with the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 in 1949. The Rocket would house a 303 cubic inch 5.0L V8.

 However, the term “Muscle Car” did not originate until the 1960s with Pontiac, another member of the GM family, to coin the phrase with its 1964 Pontiac GTO.  389-cubic-inch, 6.4L V8, and traveling 14.8 seconds in a quarter-mile. 1967 would be Ford’s answer to the GTO with the introduction of the Shelby Cobra 427 Super Snake, essentially turning a race car into a street-legal vehicle turning 800 hp at 0-60mph in 3 seconds. What does it mean to have a muscle car? Muscle cars are American-made, feature a coupe body style, intermediately sized, and housing a V8 engine. A little over two decades from the 1950s to the 1970s would be the muscle car era, ending with federal regulations for car automakers and the oil embargo of 1974.

Mustang vs. Camaro

1965 would see the first sports car introduced to the World at the World’s Fair in New York City, launching a new pony car genre and produce another iconic brand logo. Henry Ford first introduced the Mustang at the World’s fair in 1965 with the anticipation of selling 100,000 models in a one-year time frame and sold 22,000 models in one day.

Chevy was not too far behind with introducing their first pony car in 1966; with the Camaro, a 230 cubic-inch straight-six was standard, but V8 was optional.

We cannot talk Ford vs. Chevy without touching a little on the Chevy Corvette, which made its debut in 1953 and sold for $3,490.000 and today has launched their first American supercar. The 2020 Chevrolet Corvette debuted in 2019 and is the first Corvette with a mid-engine and delivers supercar performance.

And the Ford Thunderbird, or “T-Bird” as it is famously called, was a personal luxury car produced from 1955-1997 and then again in production from 2002-2005.  In 2020 Ford Performance announced upgrades to the GT Mustang mid-engine supercar that was debuted in 2005 with updates in 2017. The promotion will include increased horsepower to 660 and upgraded engine cooling. It seems that these two infamous rivalries are always just a few steps apart from each other in automobile innovation.

Dueling Beards

A rivalry for the automotive ages rages on and extends to the people who drive each brand. With family feuds, contests, comedy relief, and even some knock-down-drag-out fights on how my Chevy is better than your Ford and these fights have been a choreographed dance of destruction for so long. You know the guy with the mutton chops beard in his Ford F-150 pulling up to the traffic light revving his engine and looking over at the big guy with the extended goatee in his just washed and waxed Chevy Silverado, shouting how many horses you got in that old hunk of tin? You want to go? We do not condone street racing; it is illegal and dangerous. So, guys, just cool off those tempers, grab a bottle of the undisputed Luther Taylor best-smelling beard oil, and lube up those beautiful whiskers and talk it out because we love guys with amazingly soft smelling beards.

We all love a great rivalry. It brings healthy and prosperous competition to the forefront; today, these two “Big Players” who have carved the automotive industry have many competitors. The never-ending race to the most effective, efficient, reliable, and sustainable electric vehicle has yet to be crowned by these two; even though there have been a few produced still, they have many projects in the works along with some great competitors in the market, and their legion of loyal buyers are looking forward to the competition.