Model T: The Grandfather to Modern Cars

115 years ago, on September 27th, the first Ford Model T left the Piquette Avenue Plant. On the first day of October, it was sent to its first buyer. Manufactured

the Ford company and brought to life by Henry Ford and a team of engineers, the Model T is considered the first mass affordable car for the middle class. Imagine all the people you know in your life right now, and try to think of a single one who had not once been in a car in their lifetime. Your parents probably have cars, your aunts and uncles probably own or have driven cars. The birth of the modern affordable automobile and its companies mostly stemmed from the Ford Model T and its 15 million sales to the American public and its neighbors.

To many, this may not seem extremely important. I mean, you see cars all the time. There’s some outside your house right now, some outside in the parking lot of your school, and hundreds of cars going up and down the nearest freeway and streets of your city. If you think about it though, your life would be extremely different without these forms of transportation. They shorten the time that it takes to get to different places, turning a 30 minute walk into a 3-5 minute drive, and are arguably one of the most important inventions in human history. The modern car’s great great grandfather is none other than the Ford company’s Model T. Ford had released a handful of car models before the Model T, but the T is considered the first ever mass-affordable car to release to the public. It introduced most Americans to car transportation and sold for about 250-850 dollars. Created on the Ford assembly line, it was a car that was able to be produced quickly and efficiently for the market – which contributed to its low price. The Model T was durable, affordable, and a quick favorite among the public. Its main engineers were Joseph A Galamb, Eugene Farkas, and Childe Harold Wills.

The T’s actual engine was built by Henry Ford, and successfully tested on Christmas Eve, 1893. The actual Model T car was put through its last trials by Ford himself, where he took the car on a hunting trip to Northern Michigan and Wisconsin. The automobile’s popularity grew as he performed several acts of entertainment that would draw in the audience he intended to sell to, such as going up a large set of stairs of a state capitol and notably making it up the top of Pike Peaks. After these flashy yet effective assessments of his product, the Model T was sent to its first customer on October 1st, 1908. A few months before that its creation finished in August, 1908. After around almost 19 years on the market, Ford ended the production of the Model T in 1927. Almost half the registered automobiles in the world were Fords, and in the early 1920’s 15 million Model T’s were built and sold to the world. It was the default pick for the American middle class and their choice of automobile – the predecessor to all economical modern cars.

The Model T introduced the world to wheels, and even now Ford is still a prominent and famous car company. The Model T is regarded as the car that introduced the middle class to the public, and is a legendary car with a legendary history. It has been 115 years since its initial sale, and the repercussions of its creation and market are felt greatly in the modern day.