Bill Miller's Used Cars
Bill Miller at his used car lot in April 2010 - photo by Rod Aydelotte
Bill Miller's Used Cars is closing after a 108 year run. I was captivated by the story of how his grandpa started.
In 1908, the world changed with the first production of Ford’s Model T car. Bill Miller would take 40 men to Detroit (over 1,000 miles from Waco) on a train and buy 80 cars and pickup trucks. Each man would then drive one and pull the other with a chase chain all the way back to Texas. All the vehicles were Ford Model Ts and all black. Miller’s crew had to haul their own gas, since there were no service stations on many roads. They crossed Indian Territory in Oklahoma before it became a State. The Indians chased them but never caused any trouble, as they just wanted to look at the cars. Usually, the vehicles would all be sold by the time the crews made it back to Waco, so they immediately would turn around and head back to Detroit for another round. The cars were sold for $595, cash payments placed in a bushel baskets before depositing proceeds in the First National Bank of Waco. No paperwork, no title, no contract.
Miller sold 50,000 vehicles this way.
How times around here have changed in just one hundred years! To me, this story speaks to an almost romantic notion of enterprise, opportunity, and freedom. It's also a definition of a paradigm shift. Similar stuff is happening today — don't you believe it's not. As Austin's famous futurist, Bruce Sterling, says, "The future is here now, it's just not yet evenly distributed.”
