Henry Ford – In 1903 the Ford Motor Company was established in Detroit. Henry
was a farm boy who was fascinated with horseless carriages. He had been building
gasoline buggies for several years and had bankrupted two companies already. While
other auto makers designed luxury cars, Henry Ford designed a basic car that anyone
could afford. Here he is standing next to his iconic Model T.
In 1909 he astonished the world by marketing the world’s most inexpensive automobile
and offered qualified workers an unprecedented $5 a day. Ford became an overnight folk
hero; a champion of the common man. His obsession was mass production and in 1913 he
introduced the first moving assembly line for cars. Within 18 months, the time needed to
build a Model T was reduced from 12.5 to 1.5 man-hours.
The Model T was basic transportation which had a very long and celebrated eighteen-
year run. This Ford put a continent on wheels and revolutionized agriculture not only in
Ameria. In the twenties, sales dwindled as competitors offered more advanced cars with
accessories which were not available on a Model T. Even obstinate Henry Ford could
finally see the end was near for his beloved Tin Lizzie. In unconventional fashion his
factories were shut down in June of 1927 while the world awaited Henry Ford’s next
creation. Dealers put up signs in the windows of empty showrooms urging would-be
consumers to wait for the new Ford.
Edsel Ford, Henry’s son, created the stylish design of the new Ford Model A. The 40-
horsepower engine was also new. The car featured shocks, four-wheel brakes and a
conventional three-speed transmission. The Model A was as sophisticated as the Model
T was simple and had 2,030 more parts than its predecessor!
The all-new Ford was front page news around the world. When it was finally unveiled
on December 2, 1927, hundreds of thousands of people in Canada and the United States
mobbed venues to see the sensational new Ford, many coming out in snowstorms. In some
centres, police had to control the mobs. Sales shot through the roof and all was well again
as Ford battled to fill all the orders. Over a period of four years he produced five million
Model A’s, or more than 5000 cars a day at peak production (Cape Town to Bellville
bumper to bumper). The logistics must have been mind-blowing, considering that there
were no computers and virtually no telephones at that time.
The first Ford to arrive in South Africa was a 1903 Ford Model A, which was imported
by Mr Arthur Youldon of Johannesburg. In September 1903 Mr Youldon, an importer,
was in New York where he saw Henry Ford demonstrate his new car. He immediately
placed his order with Henry Ford, who informed him that it would be the first Ford to
be sold outside North America.
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