Before Tesla, before the Beetle, the car everyone wanted—well, the only car they could afford—was Ford's Model T, which first came off the assembly line exactly 115 years ago today. We used Perplexity, Forefront, and ChatGPT to talk about the vehicle that revolutionized transportation
In 1908, the first Model T car came off the assembly line at the Pickett Pikes factory in Detroit, Michigan. It wasn't Ford's first car—in fact, it had begun selling cars to the general public half a decade earlier, in 1903—but it was the first car produced on an assembly line.
At that time, cars were still a luxury item that only the rich could afford. But as we know, Henry Ford's vision was to create an affordable car that could be mass-produced and sold to the average American. Indeed, the Model T came with a price tag that quite a few people could afford: $850 (equivalent to about $24,000 today, due to inflation over the past century), which was later reduced to less than $600.
The transition to the assembly line system allowed Ford not only to reduce the construction costs of each vehicle, but also to significantly reduce the time: from 12 hours to only 93 minutes, so that a much larger number of vehicles could be produced to satisfy higher demand.
In addition, the Model T is designed to be easy to operate and maintain, with a simple, reliable engine and a stable, lightweight frame. It was the first self-propelled car to eliminate the need for a manual crank, and it was also the first car built with left-hand driving (in Model A the steering wheel was in the center), making it easier to navigate on American roads.
The car was also versatile, with adaptations for use as a family vehicle, transport vehicle and even tractor.
For almost two decades, the Model T was in production. In 1927, after 15 million units were sold, Ford discontinued production of more modern models. Since then, it has been overtaken by several models, such as BMW's 3 Series with just over 15 million units, Nissan's Almere/Sunny/Sentra with almost 16 million units, the 'classic' Lada with about 18 million units, the Opel Corsa with about 18 million units, Volkswagen's original Beetle with 21.5 million units, the Honda Civic with 27 million units, the Volkswagen Golf with 35 million units, Ford's F Series with no less than 40 million units and Toyota Corolla with an astonishing figure of over 50 million units.
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