The Cars That Made the World

Dont get me wrong, the show is informative, but leaves out so many big players. They talk about rolls royce doing engines for the air force, yet leave out FIAT, alfa romeo (both did cars and engines for aircraft) and left out Piaggio (which made aircraft and consequently (after the war) used the excess small tires for the Vespa - this scooter absolutely took over the world at the time!! I don't see how Honda's single stroke motor for bicycles was more revolutionary, but ok. An absolute must was FORD, which is discussed but could have had more story to it as it's one of the most important stories in the automotive history.

If, like me, you are interested in the history of how motor transport came to play such a big part in all our lives, then this series will potentially tell the story of the key events and personalities involved. Not too much to argue about historically, as it is pretty broad-brush stuff. However, the dreadful dramatisations - where slick American actors portray figures such as Benz, Daimler, Rolls, Royce, Porsche etc. as temperamental characters prone to having light-bulb moments and throwing toys from the pram when things go wrong, well it is truly cringeworthy. And as for the meeting between Ferdinand Porsche and Hitler.......

It starts from around late 1880s until mid 1970s, so it DOES NOT cover the last 50 years or so. The documentary essentially shows how the traditional car companies started off and their journey to success via a drama like narrative with actors and the surroundings neatly set up, occasionally featuring old footage along with voiceover from a few individuals who are related to the automotive industry in some way. Struggles and challenges of different companies are shown in parallel in context of global events.

All in all, it gives an overview of the evolution of the automotive industry, covering decent amount of information. Highly recommend watching it.

The many stories of automotive history are always fascinating, although as noted by other reviewers, it is sadly marred by:

• overly breathy narration
• only a selection of the many stories underlying the development of the motor car
• poorly acted re-creations of so-called key moments in the history of each story, by a bunch of frat boy actors with American accents playing their roles like they have put on some fancy costumes in a college play, not trying to recreate historical moments with any sense of accuracy.

Although probably not a surprise given it was made for the US history channel...

Off-puttingly breathy and preposterously over-dramatic commentary gets irritating after a while. It's like he's voicing a commercial or spoof Hollywood blockbuster trailer. Major omissions when it comes to big players in the car industry.