Driving a car is pretty easy today. More and more cars have push button start instead of keys, so assuming you’re pointing in the right direction, the basic directions go something like:
- Push the start button.
- With your foot on the brake, slide the shifter until it says D.
- Put your foot on the accelerator and press gently.
Compare that, if you will, with this video by YouTuber Todd Schelling.
This video gives you roughly the same set of tasks for getting a 100-year-old Model T Ford going. Just watching it makes my head spin. I’m sure that I could get used to it, as it still doesn’t look as complex as making a decent cup of espresso. But it really does illustrate how far we’ve come in 100 years.
The myth of the Model T
Most of us learned about the Model T in school. You know the basics: it used assembly line technology (although it wasn’t the first), it was affordable (although it wasn’t the cheapest) and it sold like hotcakes. It more or less created what we think of as the US automotive industry because the average person could buy one. The car originally sold for about $900, which is the equivalent of about $28,000 today. It was still a lot of money considering that there was no financing, but it was something that people could realistically get to with a little bit of time and effort. Unlike cars today, the price kept coming down until it was about $250 for one, which is about $9,000 today.
But, watching this video, you realize two things. First, no one ever talks about how easy the Model T was to drive. They talk about it being reliable, and how you didn’t need a full-time mechanic, but it’s pretty clear you needed a lot of practice to use it. Just starting it safely must have been an achievement, since the fuel shot up straight in the air and you started it with a crank, from outside the car.
The second thing you realize is why no one drives one anymore. They seem to be incredibly reliable and that comes mostly from them being incredibly basic. As long as nothing rusts out and you do your maintenance, you could probably drive a car like this today. But why would you? Even putting aside the difficulty in driving one, it was a fairly unpleasant experience. Forget about things like GPS, radio, or heated seats. This car didn’t have windows. It was also dog-slow by today’s standards, with a 20hp engine that couldn’t quite reach 60mph. It could, according to some tests, get you up to 50mph in about half a minute. Now, this was before freeways existed and so it could go fast enough to get around town. Still, once high speed roads started coming into play in the 1930s, the Model T must have seemed like a big lump.
Still, for the time…
For its day, the Model T was much more of a marvel than anything built today. A lot has been made in the last decade of how simple electric cars can be, and how they’re getting even simpler. Still, a Model T ended up being simpler still, because it has no safety equipment, no entertainment, and let’s face it, no mirrors. It’s just the bare minimum to be considered a car. And for what it was back then, it’s very impressive. Just don’t ask me to ride in one today.
Oh by the way, if the title of this article led you to believe it was going to be about anything but cars, shame on you.
