Today (or maybe (last Saturday; sources differ) is the
100th anniversary of the assembly of the first Model T Ford. That first Model T cost $825 — about $14,000 in today’s dollars. It proved reliable, simple to drive, and easy to repair.
Today, many people think the Model T is one of the most important cars ever made because it brought mobility to the masses. Others, who apparently think the wealthy should be mobile but not the poor, think it was one of the worst cars for the same reason.
In fact, the Model T wasn’t what brought mobility to ordinary people. The car sold well in 1909, but sales didn’t really take off until Ford started making Model Ts on a moving assembly line. This allowed him to lower the price of his cars to $490 in 1914 (about $8,000 in today’s prices), and eventually to as low as $290 (less than $3,000 in today’s dollars). In every year from 1919 through 1925, Ford sold more cars than all other auto makers in the nation — and in some years, the world — combined.
