It was world’s best-selling car from 1908–1972.
CHICAGO: Ford’s iconic Model T was built for the common man and began to transform the American landscape soon after it first rolled out of a Detroit factory a hundred years ago this week. It wasn’t the first car aimed at the masses, but it was the first to succeed in getting average Americans to look past horses and trolleys to the freedom of the open road.
The Model T changed more than just the layout of American cities, as more mobile workers moved out of crowded tenements into spacious suburban homes.
Henry Ford’s moving assembly line revolutionised manufacturing and his decision to double the wages of factory workers set a new standard that helped swell the ranks of the middle class.
It all started with a lightweight frame and a flexible suspension system which allowed the Model T to offer more power for less money and a smoother ride on the country’s rut-filled dirt roads.
Expensive, hard to drive, and unreliable, the early automobiles were essentially the playthings of the rich.
The Model T’s low price and easy handling made it an instant winner when it hit the market on October 1, 1908. Ford temporarily halted sales in May of 1909 because every vehicle scheduled for production through July had been sold.
But Henry Ford was not satisfied: he was obsessed with finding ways to cut costs and improve productivity. The first Model T sold for 825 dollars. By 1925, it was cost only 260 dollars.
Ford managed this by streamlining his assembly process, using fully interchangeable parts, efficiently handling materials and building his parts in-house.
By 1913 he had implemented a moving assembly line at his factory in Highland Park, Michigan that cut the time it took to build a single chassis from 14 hours to just 1.5 hours.
Ford further expanded his customer base by establishing factories in Europe, Asia and Latin America, and by 1921 the Model T accounted for almost 57 percent of the world’s automobile production.
“It maintained its dominance because it was always the cheapest car,” Casey said.
The Model T was eventually replaced with the Model A in 1927 after more than 15 million had been sold. It held onto the title of best-selling car until 1972 when it was
supplanted by the Volkswagen Bug.
