For your listening pleasure, Oscar Ford, "Henry Ford's Model A" (1929)
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Monday, January 31, 2011
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The Model A
Posted by
Matt Forster
For the past several months, I've been reading through Wheels for the World by Douglas Bentley. I've been wrapped up the legacy of the Model T for most of the reading so far, but this morning I turned the page and bam, a new chapter: "Good-bye, Model T; Hello, Model A."
This seems appropriate, because it's finally warm enough in my garage to mess around with my little piece of that history. The Model T has an elevated place in the pantheon of automobile history. I can't wait to read what Bentley has to share about its progeny.
This seems appropriate, because it's finally warm enough in my garage to mess around with my little piece of that history. The Model T has an elevated place in the pantheon of automobile history. I can't wait to read what Bentley has to share about its progeny.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Spring Is Here!
Posted by
Matt Forster
It is time to dust off the Model A, pull the battery up from the basement (hoping it didn't freeze because I forgot to take it out until January), and see if it won't start. Of course, it's supposed to be in the 30s next week, so I may wait a little longer.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
The Model T Makes the 50 Worst List, Really!?
Posted by
Matt Forster
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEV3aAqViPFpzP8Z1Hr2Np7HfmYho3FNj-2KOb58uONlpbk2J9WJi0o6f0ZNwp_uI25IimwTGmUcE4TOPtVZvkzVXzZcy6Xr_oEvyJG5_ZqYJVB3JmyjBCsjWrGNVcJIELvD_KNIltVJg/s200/ford_model_t.jpg)
Dan Neil is kind of known for wanting to be the "bad boy" of automobile journalism. Heck, it's served him well in the past. But reading his stuff sometimes feels like reading movie reviews by some brooding grad student who criticizes everything simply because he doesn't have the imagination to appreciate anything.
This list is a prime example. In this short paragraph on the Model T, problems abound, the least of which is that the Model T itself is not responsible for putting America on wheels: Henry Ford is; James Couzens is; the Dodge brothers are. And that's only if your view of history is so narrow that you only focus on a couple "movers and shakers" and miss the waves of historic change that made the Model T successful. The car itself was nothing more than the vehicle for this change (pun not intended). The writer also seem to ignore the irony that he is blaming the first mass produced marvel for this blight on the world, a blight that he profits from as a "Pulitzer-prize winning automobile critic."
Another problem with the discussion is it seems to again focus on one thing, the negative results of everyone in America owning a car. I agree, the legacy of the automobile is pretty terrible. But can we imagine a world without cars? Is Dan Neil typing away on his laptop if the world turned its back on industrialization in the early 20th century? While I also bemoan the industrialization of agriculture, I know many a family farmer whose fortunes changed with the Ford 8N and its competitors. Tractors that lightened the back-breaking work of working a farm, made possible by the success of the Model T. And this is just one of a million benefits human society has reaped from this revolutionary automobile. (Sheesh, what about the $5 day?!)
Finally, I think Mr. Neil needs to spend less time wandering around the "international car show," and spend a few weekends at Greenfield Village during their Old Car Festival. No one who has taken a look at the Model Ts on display there would call this car a "piece of junk, the Yugo of its day." (Strangely, he fluctuates on his disdain for the Model T. A year later, Mr. Neil told NPR. "It was a wonderful invention, the Model T and the mass-mobility automobile.")
It is misleading to use a list of history's "worst cars" as a platform from which to gripe about the auto industry. And it's very hard to take an "auto critic" seriously who would rather appear to lack the fundamental capacity to appreciate a car for what it is than pass up a chance to criticize an entire industry's impact on the world.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Era of the Dealership
Posted by
Matt Forster
Monday, February 8, 2010
1937 Ford House Car
Posted by
Matt Forster
Check out this cool Ford House Car. I would love to tool around the Great Lakes in that for a summer!
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYJahhqPNvPjTnfNjB8qskhREKP4Ndw_y5uORZC_I6Xm6CTDmgNv3joD6aT3OVW0aXDmIYHuWRWn58NBP5tbOZZxM2-p-NNVuHzFeXgfGUTyw92k8JtmP6WBVi1BNLVXXx7TYelnebOiU/s320/37Ford-OnTheRoad7a.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDdA-2Lh6PgQflEDyv2gcEpcT6SlRBFDpxlWco8OYYm-nHcYDKG49K73hfUg_aAKQgRYbLV-tYpCWJsBMpmB_1wbrKc2J5YH_5zVHAVx2IKWkp8fuU76YJGt6wI7mb8VpFmEgw2GwpEI/s320/37Ford-OnTheRoad9a.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-0yTU2VuA6TlsNb-TjL4yyq6QnIRXHM-FKpbmBxflxMjctci4Ukf_SANMb4ASe_xG08HDfDNeQHCEjciWcVMNGKG0-Vo0vpiBlMrTsbqtwvYstX80xvHU3HMTsD-wh5D7AVrDQLnGYPQ/s320/37Ford-interior9a.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYJahhqPNvPjTnfNjB8qskhREKP4Ndw_y5uORZC_I6Xm6CTDmgNv3joD6aT3OVW0aXDmIYHuWRWn58NBP5tbOZZxM2-p-NNVuHzFeXgfGUTyw92k8JtmP6WBVi1BNLVXXx7TYelnebOiU/s320/37Ford-OnTheRoad7a.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTDdA-2Lh6PgQflEDyv2gcEpcT6SlRBFDpxlWco8OYYm-nHcYDKG49K73hfUg_aAKQgRYbLV-tYpCWJsBMpmB_1wbrKc2J5YH_5zVHAVx2IKWkp8fuU76YJGt6wI7mb8VpFmEgw2GwpEI/s320/37Ford-OnTheRoad9a.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-0yTU2VuA6TlsNb-TjL4yyq6QnIRXHM-FKpbmBxflxMjctci4Ukf_SANMb4ASe_xG08HDfDNeQHCEjciWcVMNGKG0-Vo0vpiBlMrTsbqtwvYstX80xvHU3HMTsD-wh5D7AVrDQLnGYPQ/s320/37Ford-interior9a.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXfg20aix-njTVnJ6Q30WOC26Ub0IdnXt6Cj9K8dF8lI42ygXU20H1JQLEVGfdCk2bmDnRNn1gvdMr2qbc0NVY1JDbC93qh3IacZQZqXzrw5EQ3DA3UXDIYnm20KdMo3WKaxwteOLSpQ4/s320/37Ford-interior7a.jpg)
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Ford Legacy
Posted by
Matt Forster
Henry Ford once said, "Repetitive labor — the doing of one thing over and over again and always the same way — is a terrifying prospect to a certain kind of mind. It is terrifying to me. I could not possibly do the same thing day in and day out. But, to other minds, perhaps I might say to the majority of minds, repetitive operations hold no terrors. In fact, to some types of minds, thought is absolutely appalling" (emphasis mine).
This really doesn't speak well of line workers, though of those I've known only a portion could be described as Ford has done here. It seems short-sighted on his part, however, given his thoughts on the matter, to create an industry of mindless drones, especially since Ford went on to become the predominant employer in Michigan for a time, and his industry continues to dominate the state's economy...
This really doesn't speak well of line workers, though of those I've known only a portion could be described as Ford has done here. It seems short-sighted on his part, however, given his thoughts on the matter, to create an industry of mindless drones, especially since Ford went on to become the predominant employer in Michigan for a time, and his industry continues to dominate the state's economy...