Touring CarHenry Ford built his first motor vehicle in 1899. It rode on bicycle wheels and was given the name 'Quadricycle.' It was created at Ford's home on Bagley Avenue in downtown Detroit while he was working as an employee for the Edison Illuminating Company. The success of the Quadricycle attracted the attention of some well Detroit area investors and in 1901 Ford founded the Detroit Automobile Company. The company soon failed, with a second new company called the Henry Ford Company soon established in 1902. This company failed almost immediately. A third company, the Ford Motor Company, was incorporated on June 16th of 1903.
The first car produced by the Ford Motor Company was called the Model A. Power was from an opposed, two-cylinder engine mounted underneath the body. It had a planetary transmission with two speeds forward and one reverse. Over time, the Model A was continually refined, and in 1904 it was replace with the Model AC. The Model C appeared in late 1904. The replacement for the Model C was the Model F and was the last two-cylinder Ford produced during 1905 and early 1906.
This Model F is one of only a few pre-Model T Fords still in existence.
For the 1904 model year, the Ford Motor Company introduced three new models, the Model B, C and F. At the time, the Ford Company produced around eight percent of all cars build in the U.S. and the Ford Motor Company of Canada was also founded this year. Also in 1904, Ford opened its first dealership in Detroit on Jefferson Avenue. The Ford Model F tourer was priced at $2,000 for 1904.
The following year, 1905, Henry Ford did his best to improve his line of vehicles and the Ford F was now more dependable. This same year the Ford Motor Company was moved from the Mack Avenue factory to a much larger one on Piquette Avenue. For this year the Ford Model F's price rose from $1000 to $1,200 while the prices on all other models remained the same. Unfortunately even with all of these updates and improves, the new 'Truck' sales were still slightly less than the previous year.
For the 1906 model year, the Model F was dropped and the two cylinder engine was phased out and replaced by the Model N and the Model K. A total of seven thousand of the Ford Model N's were produced between 1906 until 1908 and sold for around $600, nearly half of the price of the Model F.
By Jessica Donaldson
