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THE MODEL T was the first mass-produced car that the average
working person could afford. It gave ordinary people mobility and
freedom that was never before possible.

Model T

Ford was

car for the masses

HENRY FORD’S most
famous quotation is that
you could have a Model T
in any color you wanted as
long as it was black.

In fact, the first Model T in
1908 was available in green, red,
blue and two shades of grey.
Then, for a time, it was available
only in green with red and black
trim. It wasn’t until 1913 that all
Model T’s were painted black. By
that time, Ford was producing so
many of them that there wasn’t
time to paint them any other col-

or.

The Model T Ford was one of
the most popular cars of all time,
selling more than 15 million units
over its 29-year lifespan. Only the
Volkswagen Beetle (which is still
being produced in Mexico), and
recently, the Toyota Corolla,
eventually outsold the Model T.

Like the Beetle, the Model T
was more than just a car. [1 was
an institution. Songs and books
were written about it. People were
married, born, and many say,
conceived, in it. The United
States, and then the rest of the
world, had a love affair with the
Model T. It was the world’s first
people’s car, even more so than
the “‘Volks-wagen’’.

The Model T was the first
mass-produced motor car that the
average working person could af-
ford. Though cars at the time
routinely sofid for over $2,000, the
Model T was introduced for $850.
This price was reduced ven fur-
ther when the Ford Motor Com-
pany mass-produuced more cars.

The genius of the Model T was
that it gave ordinary people mo-
bility and freedom that was
previously unavailable, opening up
new avenues of commerce and
recreation. The Model T was a car
capable of traversing the rough
roads of the time. it was built
simply and was fairly easy to
repair.

Medel T’s were sold around the
world in previously unheard-of
numbers. In 19!4, the Model T
captured a full 48 per cent of the
entire U.S. automobile market.

As successful as the Model T
was, Henry Ford almost never got
the project off the ground.
Technical, legal, financial and
ideological obstacles delayed the
car for many years. His main
problem was convincing financial
backers and critics that an inex-
pensive people’s car would result
in more long-term profits than a
higher-priced car. It was only his
single-minded vision and deter-
mination that got the Model ‘T in-
to production,

Before the Model T, Ford built
four other production cars: a
two-evlinder,  S-horsepower car
called the Model A Gaot to be
confused with the later 1927
model), the Model By the six ovl-
inder Model K. and the

Greg
Wilson

AUTOMOTION

predecessor to the Model T, the
Mode! N.

These cars sold fairly well, but
Henry Ford wasn’t satisfied with
bigger, more expensive cars.
After winning over or buying out
most of the directors, Henry Ford
introduced the Model T in 1908,
and it was an instant success. By
1914, Ford was selling more than
200,000 cars per year.

At that time, the story goes that
Henry Ford was looking through
a stack of orders for the Model T
and suddenly decided that, if
more than 300,000 people bought
Model T’s that year, he would
give back fifty dollars to each
purchaser. That year, Ford built
308,000 cars and handed over $15
million to purchasers.

However, it wasn’ such a bad
deal for the Ford Motor Com-
pany. They had increased sales by
100,000 cars and iowered pro-
duction costs because of greater
volume.

The next year, Henry Ford did
something more dramatic. He
decided that he would raise the
daily wage of his workforce from
two dollars a day to five dollars a
day. Ford workers were ecstatic,
and the folowing day, ten thou-
sand more people showed up in
Detroit looking for work at the
Ford plant. Competing manufac-
turers and industrialists were ap-
palled, though. They predicted
Ford would ruin the country’s
economy.

But, as it turned out, workers
could now afford to buy their
own Model T’s, and many of
them did. Both morale and pro-
ductivity were substantially —in-
creased. By 1919. Ford produced
over 750,000 Madel T’s, one third
of the U.S market.

By 1925, the price of the Model
T had come down to $260, almost
$600 less than the original asking
price in 1908,

The Madel To was replaced by
the more modern Model A] in
1927, but neither it, not any other
Ford, was to have the same pro-
found and economic impact of the
levendary Model T.

Friday, September 14, 1990 - North Shore News - 31
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