This Wednesday Oct 1st, Ford Motor Company celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Model T, the car credited with "putting the world on wheels." Bob Kreipke (Krep-key), Ford Motor Company Corporate Historian, says it did more than that.
to hear audio. Use right mouse click to download.Cut# 1:
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"I always like to tell people that one out of every four jobs in America is attached to the Automotive, if you think about it, roads, traffic signals, policeman, traffic patrols, car washes, gas stations, auto parts, insurance companies, none of this works without the advent of the automobile and mass production of that automobile." :23 sec. |
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The mass production process perfected the moving assembly line, creating and defining the industrial age and enabled Ford to steadily decrease the price of the Model T. In 1908 , the first Model T sold for $825.00. By 1925 it sold for only $260. The Model T is also responsible for establishing a minimum wage and the eight-hour work day. |
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"Five-dollars a day was a tremendous inroad, people were making, on the high end, about $2.60 for a days work, and sometimes that day was 14-hours a day to make $2.60…when Henry Ford came out with $5.00 a day at a standard eight-hour work day that was revolutionary, actually it ticked-off the rest of the working world, I mean the people that owned those companies, cause they had to raise the bar." :31 sec. |
Kreipke says the Model T is the most famous car in the world, and stands out as the industry's truly first global car. The company made 15 million Model T's over 19 years ending in May of 1927. |
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“But the bottom line was, by the early 1920's one out of every two-cars, in the world, was a Model T." 07 sec |
Kreipke says there is an estimated 60-80-thousand working Model T's still in existence around the world and well over 100-thousand still restorable. |
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"And there's a couple of reasons for that, it did have a very simple design and engineering to it, so consequently you could repair this, the other thing too is that the metal the Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford used in the early days, Valadium steel, was a very strong steel and when you look out in a Farmer's field and you see a bunch of rust-buckets sitting out there, the Model T will be the one restorable, because the metal lasts." :26sec |
Kreipke also points out that this car not only revolutionized America, it created a middle class providing the average worker with mobility never before experience by families across country as, Kreipke says, " The Model T changed the way all people worked and lived." |
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"You gotta remember that back in those days, few people traveled more than about 20 miles from where they lived, but this new horseless carriage could carry them different places and along with that it ushered in road building." :13 sec. |
As the Model T celebrates its centennial, Kreipke points out it was chosen Car of the Century by a panel of 126 automotive experts from 32 countries as the most influencial car of the 20th century. |