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Ford Model A
This excerpt from Henry Ford's reminiscences
explains the philosophy behind the Model A:
In our first year we built "Model A,"
selling the runabout for eight hundred and fifty
dollars and the tonneau for one hundred dollars
more.
This model had a two-cylinder opposed motor developing
eight horsepower. It had a chain drive, a seventy-two
inch wheel base--which was supposed to be long--and
a fuel capacity of five gallons.
We made and sold 1,708 cars in the first year.
That is how well the public responded.
In our first advertisement we said:
Our purpose is to construct and market an automobile
specially designed for everyday wear and tear--business,
professional, and family use; an automobile which
will attain to a sufficient speed to satisfy the
average person without acquiring any of those
breakneck velocities which are so universally
condemned; a machine which will be admired by
man, woman, and child alike for its compactness,
its simplicity, its safety, its all-around convenience,
and--last but not least--its exceedingly reasonable
price, which places it within the reach of many
thousands who could not think of paying the comparatively
fabulous prices asked for most machines.
And these are the points we emphasized:
Good material.
Simplicity--most of the cars at that time required
considerable skill in their management.
The engine.
The ignition--which was furnished by two sets
of six dry cell batteries.
The automatic oiling.
The simplicity and the ease of control of the
transmission, which was of the planetary type.
The workmanship.
We did not make the pleasure appeal. We never
have. In its first advertising we showed that
a motor car was a utility. We said:
We often hear quoted the old proverb, "Time
is money"--and yet how few business and professional
men act as if they really believed its truth.
Men who are constantly complaining of shortage
of time and lamenting the fewness of days in the
week--men to whom every five minutes wasted means
a dollar thrown away--men to whom five minutes'
delay sometimes means the loss of many dollars--will
yet depend on the haphazard, uncomfortable, and
limited means of transportation afforded by street
cars, etc., when the investment of an exceedingly
moderate sum in the purchase of a perfected, efficient,
high-grade automobile would cut out anxiety and
unpunctuality and provide a luxurious means of
travel ever at your beck and call.
Always ready, always sure.
Built to save you time and consequent money.
Built to take you anywhere you want to go and
bring you back again on time.
Built to add to your reputation for punctuality;
to keep your customers good-humoured and in a
buying mood.
Built for business or pleasure--just as you say.
Built also for the good of your health--to carry
you "jarlessly" over any kind of half
decent roads, to refresh your brain with the luxury
of much "out-doorness" and your lungs
with the "tonic of tonics"--the right
kind of atmosphere.
It is your say, too, when it comes to speed.
You can--if you choose--loiter lingeringly through
shady avenues or you can press down on the foot-lever
until all the scenery looks alike to you and you
have to keep your eyes skinned to count the milestones
as they pass.
I am giving the gist of this advertisement to
show that, from the beginning, we were looking
to providing service--we never bothered with a
"sporting car."
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Ford News
S&P cuts Ford ratings on cash burn and lower sales - Forbes
20 Nov 2008 at 3:53pm
S&P cuts Ford ratings on cash burn and lower sales
Forbes, NY - 12 hours ago
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services lowered its ratings on Ford Motor Co. one notch further into junk territory Thursday, a...
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