Rearview Mirror: The Ford Model T changed everything

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In October of 1908, the Ford Motor Company introduced a brand-new car, the Model T. It was so basic that a windshield could be optional, but it would change the auto industry forever.

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Its name held no special significance. Most automakers used letters or numbers to designate models, as did Henry Ford, who in 1903 named his first production car the Model A. The T simply followed the Model R and Model S.

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But the Model T wasn’t like Ford’s other cars. Its four-cylinder engine had a removable cylinder head, which was uncommon for any automaker. Its extensive use of vanadium alloy steel made it strong but lightweight, and while its springy suspension felt flimsy, it was perfectly suited for the heavily-rutted roads that many drivers faced, if there were roads at all in many rural areas. It was easy to drive and easy to fix, and its initial tag of $850 – a moderate price at the time – would eventually drop as low as $269.

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Its steering wheel was on the left, which was also unusual. Almost all cars of the day steered from the right, including Ford’s other models, but the Model T’s market dominance would set the standard for all automakers.

Henry Ford thought so highly of his new car that he took an incredible gamble. For 1909, he discontinued every other model to concentrate on it. Until the car’s demise in 1927, every Ford plant worldwide made only the Model T, in various body styles and as a truck. If the car had failed, it would have taken the company down with it.

Ford sold every Model T it could build, but it took a while to really get going. It wasn’t the first mass-produced car. Historians generally credit that to the Oldsmobile Curved Dash, which hit a high of 6,500 cars a year in 1905. Ford easily topped that in the Model T’s first full year, but the best was yet to come.

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The Curved Dash was built on an assembly line – it’s believed it was the first car so created – but it was a rudimentary system where the car was put on a cart and wheeled between stations of workers, who added parts and then moved it along. Ford had a better idea. In 1913, the first stage of his moving assembly line opened. Cars moved continuously between lines of workers, with some parts coming directly to them on auxiliary lines. It originally took 14 hours to build a car. The new method dropped it to just 90 minutes, and production jumped by almost 90,000 units in the line’s first year. In 1923, the car’s best year, Ford built more than 1.8 million of them.

It’s doubtful Henry actually said, “Any colour the customer wants, as long as it’s black.” Early ones came in several colours, and in 1910, all Model Ts were dark green. The cars went to black-only in 1914. Black paint was durable and inexpensive, it dried quickly, and the line could move faster if workers didn’t have to change paint colours.

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That line speed was a blessing and a curse. It allowed Ford to create a major market – the Model T essentially displaced the horse – and to dominate it. At its height of popularity, more than half the cars in the world were Model Ts.

But no one had worked on a moving line before, and the pace and monotony of the job wore on employees. In 1914, Ford dropped an hour off their workday, and doubled most salaries to $5 a day. The company said it was so workers could afford to buy the cars they built, and it did help to create a new middle class. But in reality, Ford hoped it would stop workers from quitting. Employee turnover was as high as 380 per cent a year.

Henry Ford thought so highly of his creation that he allowed relatively few changes over the years. Minor improvements and styling tweaks were made on a regular basis, and the addition of a self-starter in 1919 meant the engine no longer needed to be hand-cranked, but it wasn’t enough. After 1924, annual sales were still well over the one-million mark, but they were dropping. Cars were no longer a novelty, and buyers wanted new designs and features.

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Henry’s son Edsel, who had been named company president but given little control, knew the car needed replacing. Henry didn’t want to hear it, and when he finally gave in and pulled the plug in May of 1927, only some basic designs were waiting in the wings. The factories shut down for almost seven months as the successor was developed, and while the resulting 1928 Model A was a stunning success, the lapse allowed Chevrolet’s sales to pull ahead of Ford’s. It was the first time in 21 years that Ford hadn’t been the continent’s top-selling brand.

More than 15 million Model Ts were built worldwide, a record that stood until the Volkswagen Beetle broke it in 1972. Cheap, simple and effective, the Model T was possibly the most important vehicle in automotive history.