Ford Model T: the car that put America on wheels

The Ford Model T was produced by Ford from 1 October 1908 to 26 May 1927. It is generally regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, and in 1999 it was named the most influential car of the twentieth century.

Ford Model T at a glance

This page is based on English Wikipedia only.

History of the Ford Model T

A car for the great multitude

The Model T was mainly designed by Joseph A. Galamb, with Eugene Farkas and Childe Harold Wills, and was the first Ford automobile mass-produced on moving assembly lines with completely interchangeable parts and marketed to the middle class. Henry Ford said he would build a motor car for the great multitude: large enough for the family but small enough for one person to run and care for, built of the best materials to the simplest designs, and low enough in price that any man on a good salary could own one. Within two days of its release 15,000 orders had been placed.

Falling prices

The first production Model T was built on 12 August 1908 and left the factory on 27 September 1908 at the Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit. Efficiency savings from mass production let the price fall from US$780 in 1910 to US$290 in 1924, which is what turned the car from a curiosity into everyday transport. Early automobiles had mostly been scarce, expensive and unreliable, and being the first reliable, easily maintained mass-market car made the Model T a symbol of American modernisation.

Fifteen million and the end

On 26 May 1927 Henry Ford watched the 15 millionth Model T come off the line at Highland Park. With over 15 million sold it was the most-sold car in history until the Volkswagen Beetle passed it in 1972. Ford had named its cars from the Model A of 1903 through the alphabet to the Model T, twenty models in all, not all of which were built; the one before the T was the Model S, an upgraded Model N. The follow-up was another Model A rather than a “Model U”, which Ford’s publicity said was because the new car was such a departure that the company wanted to start again with the letter A.

Design and features

• Assembly-line production: the first Ford built on moving lines with interchangeable parts.
• Affordable price: from US$780 in 1910 down to US$290 in 1924.
• Reliability: the first dependable, easily maintained mass-market car.
• Model TT: the truck version for commercial work.

Ford Model T versions

• Model T touring and runabout: the main open bodies.
• Closed bodies: saloons and coupes added over the years.
• Model TT: the truck chassis for commercial bodies.
• T-bucket hot rods: stripped Model Ts rebuilt by enthusiasts.

The Model T was replaced by the Model A in 1927, and its truck version led to the Model AA. More Ford vehicles are in the Ford collection.

Sources

• Ford Model T, English Wikipedia: production, prices, designers, replacement