Spring Is Here!

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.

The Model T Makes the 50 Worst List, Really!?

I realize this was written up in 2007, and I am coming at it three years too late, but Time magazine should really do a better job of explaining itself with this one. According to their article "The 50 Worst Cars of All Time," Ford's Model T makes the list because "a century later, the consequences of putting every living soul on gas-powered wheels are piling up."

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.

The Era of the Dealership

Ford dealers did a great job of pushing the maintenance side of things, doing all they could to keep Model Ts on the road (and to up-sell wherever they could). Here's a postcard that went out to folks in North Dakota from their dealer in Bottineau.

1937 Ford House Car

Check out this cool Ford House Car. I would love to tool around the Great Lakes in that for a summer!

Ford Legacy

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...

Daily Driver

Recently we've been having some trouble with our cars, and I've been thinking this might be an opportunity. The common wisdom seems to be that a 78-year-old car is not for daily use, but why not? In many ways the Model A is a more reliable vehicle than our '93 Dodge Shadow. And recently even our 2005 Freestyle has not been starting with any kind of consistency.

So here's my thought: I work from home and only need a car to get to the store and the bank and various work-related appointments; why not make the Model A my main car? When the weather is too rough, I can sit it out at home. When we need to take the kids somewhere, the Freestyle is our go-to vehicle. When I need to drive more than 20 miles in a day, my wife and I can ride share.

I like this idea, and maybe I can expand it into a "1930s House" kind of blog. Is it a coincidence that my house was built the year before the Model A rolled off the line? Maybe it's just another circumstance that will give me a chance to explore life in the 1930s. We already live a lot like it's the 1930s anyway.

If anyone out there is reading this, let me know what you think. An interesting experiment? Worth following? Your feedback is welcome.

Last Drive for the Season

Over the weekend I took the panel truck out for a drive. The weather was a perfect sixty-eight degrees and sunny, and I took my time driving a long meandering loop through town. The engine chortled contentedly without miss or hesitation, and I felt like I kept the idle lower than I have ever been able to in the past.

The idea of getting the truck ready for winter was hard to embrace on such a beautiful day, but I began the process. First I swept out the "stall," then laid down plastic and sealed the back door against wind and weather. Next I need to run some winterizer through the engine and pull the battery inside for the season.

One thing I got ready was a work area so tools are right out front and center. All we need now is a decent space heater and we're all set to put in a few weekends on this thing when winter finally arrives.