What If The Economy Is Fine And Cars Prove It?

Welcome And Show Rundown

Don Armstrong 0:06

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. It's the award-winning In-Wheel Time Car Talk Show. Just ahead, the guy that keeps us grounded here, Jack Nirak, and his take on the new car market, along with other things like what's the price of gas in LA today. Later, Jeff has the racing calendar. Mr. Mars has This Week in Auto History. And I'll bring you some of the stories making automotive news headlines this week. Howdy, along with Mike Out of This World Bars over there. Jeff Zeke in here. David Ainsley. Way out there. I'm Don Armstrong. Glad you could join us on this Saturday for our live show. If you're uh listening, watching on a podcast, thank you for that. I think I just did the YMCA thing. Did you? I think that's what it was. I know that you well rehearsed in that. You know, Jeff was you know, Jeff was a major domo back in what high school?

unknown 1:00

Yeah.

Jeff Dziekan 1:02

A major domo. It's it's called we used to call it genius back then. A genius. Yeah. And it's uh you can call it what you want.

Don Armstrong 1:10

Yeah, go ahead.

Jeff Dziekan 1:11

Mike uh Oh no, no, no, no.

Don Armstrong 1:14

No, all right. Well, just thought I'd mention that because uh Dimension of that. He he he he he does he does have uh a knack for music.

Jeff Dziekan 1:24

He's a great drummer and well was great guy, you know, great family man, uh just great all around.

Mike Marrs 1:31

You wanna you wanna just go ahead and just read as your resume? We could end the show right now with that. And on a high note.

Don Armstrong 1:38

We could do that. Well, as we wait for Jack.

Mike Marrs 1:41

No, Jack's ready. Jack's here. Well, well, bring him on. Bring him on. He's too busy talking about Jeff.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Well, I love hearing about Jeff. I know we have to need more Jeff.

California Check In And Gas Prices

Don Armstrong 1:52

We do need more Jeff Zeke and hello. Hello to California, my friend.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Things are great here in California. Yeah, don't lie to us.

Don Armstrong 2:01

I'll bet. Yeah. We we heard all the terms. Have they counted the damn votes that are? No, no.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

This I I I was looking at the election results um website uh yesterday, and they say they're gonna certify sometime in July. July's a good day. July. July the 4th.

Mike Marrs 2:16

150 anniversary.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Right around there. I think July 5th is the day they've picked. Is it this July? We think so. We're not quite sure, but we think so.

Don Armstrong 2:26

Oh, Jack. That California, dude. We love it. Wild and crazy people. Yeah, and you're loving it still out there.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Well, we put up uh for uh with a lot for the weather, right? I mean, and I'm I'm three-quarters of a mile from the beach. It's beautiful, you know, yeah, the ocean, wonderful. It's uh always about 75 degrees here, no matter what time of year, so gotta like that. See, that's and then there's the craziness, and it's everywhere.

Don Armstrong 2:51

Well, but it's always been that way, Jack. Let's not forget where all those bands came from back in the 60s, brother.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, well, that's true. That's true, including the Beach Boys, which are you know from right up the road here. Yep. You know, my heroes, of course.

Don Armstrong 3:05

Yeah, well, all of ours.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah.

Don Armstrong 3:07

So I have to ask you, how much the price of gas out there today?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

It's come down. Uh, we were driving around yesterday, and it's uh it's under six dollars now. It's uh, you know, high fives. Uh we're not giving high fives, but uh the the uh gasoline is well, it's five forty-five a gallon or something.

Don Armstrong 3:25

Well, I I will tell you this that I had to buy gas for the Corvette uh a couple weeks ago, and I it burns premium. And I I spent five dollars a gallon. I've never spent five dollars a gallon on gasoline. It cost me like eighty dollars to fill it up.

Mike Marrs 3:43

Yeah, we used to buy Avgas out at the airport for that.

Don Armstrong 3:47

Well, you can't do that anymore, at least you can't admit it, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yeah,

Inside Hyundai And Kia Georgia Plants

SPEAKER_00 3:51

crazy.

Don Armstrong 3:51

So, Jack, uh let's talk about new cars and anything new and fun that you've uh been on any junkets lately.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Well, actually, I I spent uh the early part of uh the week in Georgia, uh, and I was at the uh Hyundai Meta plant where they uh were going to build something like 250,000 to 500,000 uh electric vehicles a year. That's not gonna happen. So they have introduced the Kia sportage hybrid into that plant, which is interesting because it's a Kia being built in uh a Hyundai plant, but of course they're they have the same parent company. Right. So uh it was kind of fascinating to see that plant um add Kia to it. There was a big ceremony, Governor Kemp was there to drive the first vehicle off the line, do all of that. Uh very nice event. And then we drove down to um West Point, Georgia, kind of across the state, and saw the Kia plant where they're building all kinds of stuff and they're going great guns and uh they're making uh about half a million vehicles a year in that plant, all with American workers, of course. It's just gonna boom for the economy there. So uh it's traffic. Uh one of the most impressive things about that was they have something like 13,000 vehicles on the ground at any one time. Wow. I mean, there are just acres, acres of cars produced, and you look at them and you go, people are buying these, but it's it's uh it kind of shows you just the scale of the industry. It's just so amazing.

Mike Marrs 5:24

So they're literally building them so much faster than they can ship them off the property out across the country, huh?

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Well, uh they build one uh about one car every 53 seconds, I think is what they told us. Something like that. And then they ship a lot of them by rail and the rest of them by truck. I think to the southeast they go uh by truck and probably out to Texas by rail, uh certainly up to the upper Midwest and out here to California.

Jeff Dziekan 5:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:50

And then they also uh export some. Uh some go to Mexico, some go to Canada.

Jeff Dziekan 5:54

I remember back when I was in the factory, I think they built a car every nine minutes, I think, and that was like the exclusive timed beat.

Mike Marrs 6:01

Yeah, the holdup was the wooden wheels, though. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Dziekan 6:05

They warped a lot, but 53 seconds, that's amazing. Yeah. The the first plant, did they have a lot of storage there on their lots? Because you said you went to the first one.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Well, it's interesting. They uh, you know, being all electric and uh things changed on them pretty radically now, didn't they? Um they have a lot of extra space. And I think they're going to introduce uh a lot of uh internal combustion engine vehicles there over the course of time. I they're calling it electrify, but you know, these are these are hybrids, so they do have a battery. Uh but they're not battery vehicles like the uh vehicles that were being produced or are being produced there.

Mike Marrs 6:42

So they introduced the Kia sportage there at the Hyundai plant. Is it the same Kia Sportage? I mean, did or did they make some significant?

SPEAKER_00 6:49

No, it's well, I mean, it's the new model year, right? And they're only going to build the the uh hybrid there, the sportage hybrid. Uh the conventionally powered sportage is still being built in in West Point, Georgia, uh and which also builds, I think, like four other cars. It's pretty amazing to see various vehicles come down the same assembly line and everything match up and and all you know, it's fascinating how they're able to do all that.

Don Armstrong 7:17

Well, Jack,

Why Car Sales Stay Strong

Don Armstrong 7:18

I I I know that you have probably seen the story that uh I I read today. The fact that it seems as though, at least for now, that the auto industry, the car manufacturing industry, is actually not doing too bad. They're still selling lots of cars, which goes completely against what we hear about grocery store prices, uh how bad the economy is, but yet we still have this love affair for cars.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Yeah, I mean, there's a drumbeat that the that the economy is bad, and the economy isn't bad. I mean, I I think people think that the economy is bad because they hear it every day in the media, but actually they're spending money like the economy is really pretty darn good. And one of the indicators of that is they're buying cars. Not only are they buying cars, they're buying expensive cars. I mean, the transaction price uh is uh right around fifty thousand dollars, uh, the average transaction price. So this is a fairly robust uh car industry, and both dealers and uh the car manufacturers are making a lot of money. Uh, you know, this is pretty bad times for them. Good news doesn't make good headlines. No, exactly. I I think uh media is trying to rile this up, and I think when you see what the media is about these days, which is getting clicks, you don't get clicks by telling people good news. You get clicks by telling people that things are lousy.

Mike Marrs 8:44

Yeah, it's a moneymaker.

unknown 8:45

Yeah.

Used Car Hunt And Affordable Picks

Don Armstrong 8:46

So I have two people right now in my life that are both in the car buying mode. Um, one of them being my daughter. Um, the lease is up on her rogue, and um she is interested in buying a used Jeep Grand Cherokee. So we started doing, I clicked around a little bit. Oh my god, if if you go online, you're gonna find a bajillion of them, all different makes and models, all different years, all different mileage uh figures, and prices are all over the board. So it's not just new cars, it's used as well. I have another friend of mine that uh was in the market because their lease is up on their Volkswagen, and um looking at they don't do not want another Tiguan uh because of the jerkiness of the turbo and it just it the engine thing. Oh, well, we've changed the you know the algorithm in the computer. Okay, fine. Right you go do that. But guess what they're really going after? A Chevy tracks of all things a Chevy tracks. And I'll tell you, Jack, you know, I actually drove one not that long ago. It's a pretty decent car for under $30,000.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah, one of the few, right? Uh one of the few.

Don Armstrong 10:10

And it's it it and it's not what you would consider a cheapo. Not by any, it doesn't look that way and didn't drive that way. It's got a three-cylinder engine that gets 30 miles per gallon. I mean, it's got a lot of things going for it. My guess is they're going to sell everyone they get on the lot.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Yeah, it's funny. I was talking to a friend of mine at uh JD Power recently, and he was touting the tracks too. He said, Yeah, you know, he used that as an example of uh one of the few affordable cars out there that's uh really a good deal. So it's something to look at.

Don Armstrong 10:42

Well, it and it looks good too. It doesn't look like a cheapo. I remember back in the day, yeah, that car is a cheapo, you can just tell by the way it looks. They don't they don't generally make those anymore. You want to upgrade from that, there's always Buick. Oh Lord. So Jeff's still touting his Buick and his decision to buy a Buick, and I will say that's a pretty nice car, too. There you go. And it's not fifty thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

It's not, and it's I'll tell you if you had a Buick out here, you would have the most distinctive vehicle on the road because you wouldn't you wouldn't see anything just like it out here, I can tell you that.

Don Armstrong 11:14

Do they not sell Buick's in California?

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Uh very rarely. Well, that's don't see them. That's you know, they're a pretty good-looking vehicle. I uh you know, you see one on the road and you go, what is that? And then you go, Oh, it's it's a Buick Buick.

Jeff Dziekan 11:27

If you toot the horn,

Regional Tastes Shape What Sells

Jeff Dziekan 11:28

I'll wave at you.

Don Armstrong 11:28

And you know, uh to that end, Jack, and I I know that you'll agree with me on this, in different parts of the country, it's almost as if it's going from Neiman Marcus to Dillard's to Macy's. You know, it's yeah, it's a it's a blouse or it's a shirt, but it's different in the different parts of the country.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah. Yeah. If you travel around as we do, and if you look at the sales figures, stuff that sells in the Northeast does not sell in the Southwest, for example. Or uh things that sell in Texas don't sell in North Dakota. Um, nothing really sells. It's a trend of the region. There's nobody that lives in North Dakota. Actually, I think North Dakota is probably booming now because of the oil business up there. Um, but um I'll tell you, uh, it is kind of regional, very regional splits. I mean, you see a lot of domestic vehicles in the middle of the country and on the coast, you just don't see them very much. And here in Southern California, I mean, this is a giant import market with the exception of Tesla, uh, which is a domestic brand, of course. Uh, and you see uh a lot of Teslas here. I think uh the Tesla Model Y was the best-selling vehicle in California last year, or something like that. So go go figure. Um that probably won't happen uh going forward because uh the lack of the federal tax credits, but uh we'll see.

Don Armstrong 12:50

Well, so what are you going to uh talk about today on uh your car show?

SPEAKER_00 12:55

One of the things we talk about is the Mazda CX30. And is that really an SUV? Uh you know, my take on that, and especially in the turbo version, is it's more of a hot hatchback. Uh it's a really fun-to-drive car. Um, so we talk about that. Well, of course, we do car reviews. Uh, we're also reviewing the Deep Grand Cherokee this year, and that or this this week, and that that vehicle has uh a new powertrain with this new uh turbocharged four-cylinder engine, very uh interesting tech. Um kind of I guess I don't want to uh overtell what we're what's on the show, but uh we're not necessarily big fans of the newer newer.

Jeff Dziekan 13:37

Okay. That that's that's an honest opinion.

Horsepower Returns And Turbo Tradeoffs

Don Armstrong 13:40

All right. News this week from Stellantis. They're bringing back the horsepower, brother. Something that they should have never gone away from. They wouldn't be this deep in debt had they not gone away from it. But that idiot that they finally got rid of, uh Yeah, that that's a thing of the past. I mean, apparently they're gonna go all in on horsepower.

Jeff Dziekan 14:04

Well, you said more horses, they're gonna put more electric motors in them.

Don Armstrong 14:07

Well, in some cases, but uh but I mean I I think that the the Hemi's back. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Yeah. Well, I think what we saw, and what I was talking about just now with the Jeep Grand Cherokee in that four-cylinder engine, all things being equal, and uh, if we didn't have the fuel economy requirements that we used to have and the emission requirements that we used to have that have now been banished, uh thankfully, we wouldn't have stuff like that. I think a lot of people are facing the um uh they're being confronted with turbocharged four-cylinder engines in all kinds of things that they uh are about to buy, and they're going, well, I don't really want this. I like a V8 engine, I like a you know, a solid, uh normally aspirated six-cylinder engine like I'm used to. Uh I don't want the complication and sometimes the turbo lag of a turbocharged engine, and that's because of fuel economy requirements that were just crazy. I mean, you know, impossible, almost impossible to reach, and certainly impossible to reach without those kind of powertrains.

Mike Marrs 15:08

And whether you're driving that turbo three-cylinder or you're driving the the 5-7 Hemi, the cost of the gas, the fuel is the same. Yeah. Just depends on how hard you push it and use it. Yep. Right.

Don Armstrong 15:20

Well, I think that uh I think that they're headed in the right direction for their miraculous comeback, and Lord knows they've had enough of them in the in the life cycle of that company. But uh yeah, I I was kind of excited to hear that uh the SRT is going to make a huge comeback. They're gonna have like, I don't know, 30 different versions of it or something like that. It's crazy. But uh, and it's not gonna take that long for this to get on the um on in the road, to be honest with you. I I see that uh I saw a preview, I don't remember what car it was, but it looked real good. And I'm thinking, you know, there's something about an American V8, normally aspirated, that is unlike anything else that we drive, Jack. And you gotta agree with me.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Yeah, absolutely. Uh big fans of those, and I've been big fans of those forever. And I think what we see in uh full-size SUVs is kind of the remnant of that, right? I mean, those are the only separate body on frame, V8 power rear drive vehicles that are still on the road. And you know, that's what everybody had as a family car, you know, uh 30, 40 years ago.

Don Armstrong 16:29

The only thing that we we never heard about turbo lag until they started making them to for customers to drive. Turbos have been around forever and ever and ever. But uh, the ones that we drive, I remember when they first came on the market, they were horrible. Step on the gas and it kind of inched forward, and then all of a sudden, this huge rush of power that you're squealing the tires and not meaning to.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Yeah. They've kind of moderated that to some extent, but a lot of these turbos I drive still have some lag. Uh, and as I say, I don't want to mean mean to pick on the Jeep Grand Cherokee, but as you're driving that, uh, you know, this is a big heavy vehicle, um, and you'd like immediate torque, you just don't get it from those kinds of engines.

Jeff Dziekan 17:13

Yeah, turbos were originally designed or used on like big industrial equipment, large dump trucks and diesels and things now.

Mike Marrs 17:20

Yeah. And so the slow turn-up of a turbo was fine for that.

SPEAKER_04 17:24

Yeah, and lower torque.

Mike Marrs 17:26

To stamp to the Stellantis' credit, but they're responding to the market. They're not responding to the government mandates now. They're not being forced to build cars for mandates of building, trying to build cars that people want to buy.

Jeff Dziekan 17:39

Well, they were making money on the mandates on on that because now they're not making money, so they do have to pivot.

Don Armstrong 17:44

Yeah, and I think that I think that uh the pivot when a great big huge company makes a pivot, it takes a while to get that wheel turning, so to speak. So, Jack, uh, what uh is your press car of the week that you're driving this week?

Volvo XC60 Press Car Impressions

SPEAKER_00 17:59

I have a Volvo XC60. I actually went out uh this morning even before the show and and uh did some photography on it. Uh, you know, that's a sweet ride. Uh the XC60 is one of the Volvo's best, and um, you know, it's a mid-size luxury SUV, and yeah, they just finish them well. Uh the seats are among the most comfortable uh of any seats in in the industry. I just think it's a terrific vehicle.

Don Armstrong 18:26

You know, you just don't hear of people buying them, at least here in Texas anymore. And I think that it that Volvo brand uh has something to offer and uh something to look at if you look at for something a little bit more upscale than I don't know, Chev Chevyers.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

And they're building a lot of them now in in the United States, which is cool as well. You know, a lot of their SUVs are being focused.

Don Armstrong 18:50

Well, Jack, it's always great to talk to you, and we thank you so much for taking the time out of your day. America on the Road is his show. Look it up. And uh any new books?

SPEAKER_00 18:58

I'm working on another crime novel. Uh, it's more in my head than it is on the paper yet.

Don Armstrong 19:04

It's a crime up there in your head.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, yeah. A lot of things are a crime.

Mike Marrs 19:08

Yeah, you've been in Don's head then, haven't you? That's my wife.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Yeah.

Don Armstrong 19:12

Jack, we love you. Thank you so much. Have a great uh uh summer, and hopefully we'll talk to you before summer ends.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

I look forward to it. Always great to talk to you three. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jack. Thank you, Jack. Thank you.

Next Week Bonus Hour Road Trip

Don Armstrong 19:23

Appreciate you. Hey, you're invited to join us again next week for our live show. And next week it's a bonus hour, 9 to noon Central, as we take it all the way up to Granbury, Texas, for the Lone Star Street Rod Association, Lone Star State Run. If you miss our show, you'll be able to connect through a podcast from your favorite podcast channel anytime. We're going to be right back after this quick break. Stay with us. The Tex Max dining experience is defined by Lupi Tortilla, your destination for Texas's best beef fajitas and frozen margaritas. Since 1983, Lupi Tortilla has served authentic and time-tested recipes made with the freshest ingredients. Atmosphere is part of the award-winning experience of Lupi Tortilla, all developed in a little house near Highway 6 and I-10 in Houston. Visit any of the Lupi tortillas and you'll see the same attention to detail at each and every location. Start your loopy experience with queso flamingato and guacamole, along with a classic frozen margarita. Dine on famous loopy beef and chicken to it's or pepper shrimp brochette, or a fish or vegetarian entree, and finish with a scrumptious flan for dessert. Find loopy tortilla in Houston, College Station, Beaumont, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas, Fort Worth. There's a Texas location near you. The recipes are authentic and time-tested. The ingredients always fresh. Loopy tortilla eats pretty good. You want me to get a mic?

Mike Marrs 21:00

If you would, sir, I'll pull it up and get you started. There you go. All

Texas Swap Meets Worth The Walk

Mike Marrs 21:04

right. So swap meets are something that we used to. I remember when I was much, much younger that that was something that we always went to looking for parts. It was a big deal. It was almost like almost every car show had a swap meet, and it's not so much anymore. Now, if you're going to find something, generally it's tied into a flea market. But there are several swap meets. Or you go online and get it. You know, it takes all the fun out of watching, walking through it. So, but one of them that's going on that is still a pretty big deal is the Southwest Swap Meet at Lone Star Park. Now, this is right between Dallas and Fort Worth. Happens twice a year. In fact, it's going on this weekend, is the spring event, and there'll be one later on in the fall. Now, this has been around since 1968, and it's set up on a six on excuse me, a 300 acre horse racing facility. So it's not a lot of open fields and stuff. You've got parking lots and grandstand, the tracks all right there in the background, but there's like 5,000 spaces available for vendors, food trucks, and the auto corral. So if you want to go looking for something in a little bit more of a laid-back atmosphere that's not totally too big, put on your walking shoes and go check out this one. Now, getting a little bit closer to home down here in the Dallas part of the world, Hot Rods of Texas swap meet happens up in Conroe. Again, this one is twice a year, and this is the second largest swap meet in Texas. Now, uh the October event is set for October the 23rd and the 25th. Again, Montgomery County Fairgrounds out on Airport Road. We've been out there a couple of times with some other events. It is a real fairgrounds. It is a large place, and they use the whole thing. Hot rods, muscle cars, project builds. And the great thing about this one is if you're going to be a vendor there, if you're going to come in there and set up, you've got to have at least 75% of your content or your stuff you're bringing in has got to be auto-related. So you're not really going to turn this into some sort of flea market with a lot of handicrafts on it. And uh it usually draws a lot of a pretty big crowd because isn't that a cute purse you brought over there? Got a car on it. So um then we want to go to the big one. Now, this is the biggest in Texas, and it is considered one of the largest in the country. Now, this is the Pate Swap Meet. Happens April the 23rd through the 25th, so still got time to get there. Now, this was started in 1972 by several Texas car clubs who were going off to Pennsylvania, to Hershey, and places like that, and they got tired of making the drive. So they decided to set one up here, and it's been through several different places, and now is home at the Texas Motor Speedway. Fourteen clubs get together to put this together. They have 2,000 vendors, they have 9,900 spaces for people to set up and swap parts and swap stories. Then they have an auto corral. And there's some pictures, part of these pictures are from the top seating of the track looking out over the field. It uses the in the whole track. And uh a lot of people, I mean, they now have uh golf carts, a lot of people use scooters, a lot of people get around. I last time I was up there, it wasn't quite this big, it was pre-COVID. I was there two days and still didn't get to walk through all of it. So there's a lot of stuff up there and lots of things. And if you buy something, if you can't carry it, they got people that'll actually tear it to your car. So one thing about these car, these swap meets, whether it's these big ones or the small ones that you can find, the biggest thing you got to remember is bring cash. Cash is king because out there in the middle of the parking lot, you're not gonna necessarily have access to a credit card. And the other thing is if you want to get something in particular, if you're really looking for a hard to part find, you ought to get there a little bit early and get started on it. Bring your walking shoes. And um a couple other things. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you walk your feet off with that. A couple other things I want to mention quite real quick. Greenville Swap Meet, that's an old school option early in the spring that's up there. And the other one is the Corvette Chevy Expo down in Galveston. It's pretty close. That one also has uh a swap meet, but it's primarily GM focused, uh head, obviously heavy into the Corvettes. But swap meets are still out there and you can find them. Uh just got to kind of look for them. They're not uh as plentiful as they used to be, but there's still a lot of yeah,

Abandoned Detroit Factories Still Standing

Mike Marrs 25:29

there you go.

Don Armstrong 25:29

Thanks for being with us today. Time now here on the In Wheel Time Card Talk Show for Jeff's car culture. Not the motor minute, but the car culture. Abandoned car factories that still hold secrets.

Jeff Dziekan 25:40

Yeah, the city of Detroit was once the beating heart of the global industry, uh in automotive industry, basically. The American automobile industry rapidly expanded in the early 1900s with Detroit as its epicenter. Millions of cars rolled out of the factories. The city rightfully earned the name Motor City. So here we go. The first one that's still in Detroit is the Packard Automotive Plant. Since the opening in 1903, the plant served as a manufacturing heart for the Packard Motor Company, producing some of America's most prestigious automobiles. During World War II, the facility joined forces with Rolls-Royce to manufacture 55,000 Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, which was on the Spitfire. The Packard Motor Company collapsed in the late 50s, which led to the closure of the automotive plant portion in 1956, leaving the location abandoned ever since. Deemed structurally unsafe for decades of neglect, the massive complex was partially demolished in 22 and in 24. Today only fragments of the 3.5 million square foot factory remain. There's been movies actually uh made in that part of the dilapidated structure as well. So some of it is still viable. They've got the uh folks that go in there and and skateboard and and you know tag all the paint and stuff like that. So it's still around. The next one, uh, this is uh kind of near and dear to my heart, the Fisher Body Plant 21. This is the old Fleetwood plant. Uh I actually worked on the fourth floor there. Uh if you look really close, you can see my parking spot right up front. Uh built in 1919, the 600,000 square foot Fisher Body Plant was designed to serve as key manufacturing site for General Motors. The plant closed in 1984 despite a short second life with small businesses occupying the premises until 1993. The massive concrete structure was left abandoned for decades. According to the Urban Explorers, there we go, the the rail system that transported vehicles within the factory is still left in place. After decades of neglect, the building is now fenced off and finally being uh revived through the Fisher 21 Lofts redevelopment program. So they're trying to do something with it back in that area. Fisher Loft. Fisher Loft.

Don Armstrong 27:48

Maybe that's what they need to do with the sugar factory in Sugarland.

Jeff Dziekan 27:51

I thought that's turned into a larger I thought that's what they were kind of trying to do.

Don Armstrong 27:55

That's another story. Okay.

Jeff Dziekan 27:57

Anyways, the next one is the Highland Park Ford plant. This one's got a lot of history to it as well. It's one of Detroit's most significant factories in automotive history. It opened in 1910, designed by the designed by the same uh architect that designed the Packard building. Uh the plant became the birthplace of the modern moving assembly line from Henry Ford, introduced in 1913. As a production of the Model T moved to a different factory, the Highland Park Ford plant transitioned into automotive trim manufacturing, truck and tractor production, as well as the production of tanks, aircraft, and certain parts in World War II. According to the Ford Company, sold uh sold this historic Highland Park complex in 1981, but it continues to leave space for storage even today. So you probably got a little storage company working and that's pretty good to keep it going. Last one we got, Michael, is the American Motors Detroit plant. You know, we've covered all the manufacturers there. This one was built in 1927.

Don Armstrong 28:52

Wait a minute, I thought that they were up in Wisconsin.

Jeff Dziekan 28:55

This one was the original, built in 1927. It's a two million square foot industrial complex that serves as headquarters for American Motors, or AMC. Uh the company first oversaw the development of production of appliances and focused exclusively on production of vehicles starting in 1960. Rambler, the Hornet, the Javelin, Gremlin, Pacer were some of the manufacturer's most popular models built in this factory. In the late 80s, Chrysler acquired Chrysler required the AMC to move uh as a move to let the complex being uh repurposed for Jeep and Truck Engineering Center. So there you go.

Don Armstrong 29:30

Well that was interesting. Yeah. Uh that's funny. Uh yeah, because I always thought that American Motors was Kenosha.

Jeff Dziekan 29:36

Yeah. Well, you know, that that's probably after that, because this was built early on. So but again, this I was there for that. They were making appliances first in this one in this particular plant.

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