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Celebrating 10 years of YouTube with our most popular video posts

Happy Birthday, YouTube! Thanks For All The Car Videos

Ten years ago today, YouTube was born in earnest. The company was founded in February of 2005, but its first video was uploaded on April 23 (by the founders, of course). The course of the entire Internet, and all of our lunch breaks, was forever altered.

Autoblog is actually a bit older than YouTube. Our first post was published in May of 2004, but there's no question that our history has been enriched by that of the video-hosting giant. These days you're just as likely to see our original video as something we've uncovered on YouTube, but we feel obliged to wish the site a happy birthday all the same.

Here then, are the ten most popular Autoblog stories featuring YouTube videos, of all time. Set your dashcams to record, and get ready for a hilarious trip into the past.




10. Autoblog shows how to unlock your car with a cell phone

It's highly appropriate that at least one item on this list be the product of our dearly missed associate editor and podcast host, Chris Shunk. Evidence of Shunk's brilliant eye for YouTube videos can be seen below, as he authored more than a few of the posts on this list.

Here though the man himself is on center stage. Shunk and his daughter do their best Mythbusters impression with an Internet rumor about unlocking a car with your cellphone.



9. Brilliance BS4 scores zero points in Euro crash test

The rumor of Chinese automakers bringing their wares to America predates Autoblog and YouTube. And the reason that so many of us are skeptical of such a move can be partially gleaned from this terrifying bit of film from 2009. Zero stars for the car, but full points for this ninth-most-popular video.



8. Low-flying pelican results in Bugatti Veyron Hydro Edition

We suggest avoiding sea birds of all kinds when piloting hypercars. But the combination of a looping pelican, a Texas highway, talking on the phone while driving, and the Bugatti Veyron, all proved especially hilarious tragic, back in 2009.

This is post number two for Shunkytown, by the way, for those keeping score at home.



7. Road-raging cop brake-checks driver and causes accident, caught on video

You can almost guarantee that if there's a video of police behaving badly, it'll get clicked on a lot. Such was definitely the case with this 2013 video, showing a "road-raging" cop taking his anger out in the form of a brake check on the highway. He was being filmed at the time, naturally.



6. Volkswagen wants you to have fun... taking the stairs

Volkswagen teamed up with advertising agency DBB to create this viral bit of video magic. Covering a set of stairs with a sort of pedestrian piano, the goal was to get people to make healthy choices by way of fun. This one doesn't have much to do with cars, but you guys ate it up (just like Master Shunk knew you would).



5. Toyota dealer employees caught snooping through customer vehicle, watching porn

There's not a lot that we can add of value to the headline – Chris Shunk's opus.

Suffice it to say that, if you're in the car servicing industry, try to keep your creepy snooping off camera and to a minimum. Also know that it's practically never advisable to watch porn in a car, any car. Gross, you guys.



4. All the cars of the monster Baillon Collection barn find are headed to auction

Barn find rumors are a dime a dozen. (And a few of them crop up in your 'news' feeds once a month or so.) That's what made the Bailon Collection so special, and so watchable in video form.

Certainly the story from January of this year was bolstered by a lovely, haunting gallery of images, too. But the YouTube video brings the whole story to life.



3. Mercedes-Benz E-Class commercial features malfunctioning car

If there's one thing you really don't want to show in a commercial for your new luxury car, it would be a blatant malfunction of a safety system. Such was the case with this 2009 Mercedes-Benz E-Class spot, which was rather quickly taken down from YouTube. Of course, few things are ever permanently removed from the site once they've breathed life, as you can see by the video here.



2. Man beats ticket on dashcam evidence, takes town to court

In at the Number Two spot is a dashcam video, though you might be surprised to see that it is not, in fact, from a Russian dashcam. Mores the pity.

Instead, this is another case of a police camera doing it's impartial duty, which in this case meant contravening the ticket given by the cop in question. As a side note, the 1,442 comments to this post (and counting) are proof positive that this video got y'all fired up.



1. Moscow motorcyclist's crazy high-speed commute

And, of course, Russia. Combine an exotic locale, a speeding motorcycle, and the creeping sense of eventual disaster, and you've got yourself the recipe for YouTube gold. Black Devil – Moscow Ride on R1 has racked up nearly 11 million views on YouTube to date, and our post detailing the insanity has been read by some 1.1 million. If you're one of the few that hasn't seen it, now's your chance.

Happy Birthday, YouTube! Thanks for the decade of wonder and time wasting, and here's to another ten years of cooperatively entertaining the car-loving world.

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