TBT: Down to Its Last $223, A Doctor Helped Revive Ford Motor Company

Today, Ford sells millions of vehicles around the world each year. But back in 1903, sales were far from guaranteed. Just a month after incorporation, Henry Ford’s third venture in the automotive industry was near collapse.

The new company’s bank balance had dwindled to just $223, and another month of the new venture also was not assured. But the Model A – the original, not the second Model A, which would succeed the uber-popular Model T – would soon begin flying out the doors of Ford’s converted wagon factory on Mack Avenue in Detroit. 

Advertised as the “Fordmobile,” according to “The Ford Century,” a commemorative book created for the company’s centennial in 2003; the Model A featured a two-cylinder, eight-horsepower engine with a two-speed planetary transmission. The car rode on 28-inch wheels and had detachable “tonneau” rear seating. It was capable of traveling up to 30 mph.

Doctor Ernst Pfenning from Chicago was Ford Motor Company’s first customer, buying a Model A on July 15 – nearly a month after the company’s inception on June 16, 1903. The company’s first automobile shipment, made to Dr. H.W. Yates of Detroit, was also a Model A, which would come days later.  Pfenning’s was the eighth to be shipped, according to “The Ford Century.”

Sales continued to pick up, according to the book, as $20,000 worth of Ford vehicles had been sold within a month. Those initial units became just the first of 1,700 to leave the factory in the company’s first 15 months. With a young Henry Ford directing production, first as chief engineer and later as president, the company left for a much larger building on Piquette Avenue and Beaubien Street in 1905.

The Model A was hailed in advertisements as the “Boss of the Road.” One 1903 advertisement called it “The Car of Convenience,” reading: “The superiority of the Ford is due to its perfect construction,” and also bragged, “One Ford will do more work and outlast any other single cylinder runabout made.” The rest of the ad touted the Model A’s serviceability – its body could be removed, exposing any functional parts that may need to be accessed. A motor with less vibration than what was common at the time and a simple, strong transmission were also plugged.

Through a disclaimer at the bottom, the advertisement also recalls a patent on “road locomotives” held at the time by George Selden, a patent attorney, which hamstrung many early automakers, but not Henry Ford, who continued to build cars in defiance of the purported patent obligation, which he fought and defeated over the course of the company’s early years. Ignoring the patent, and not paying a license to Selden as many automakers had done, allowed Ford to keep its products more affordable. The Model A in the advertisement is listed for $850 while the adjacent Baker Motor advertisement teases a $1,200 Baker Imperial, for example.

The third Model A ever sold, which is the oldest remaining production Ford vehicle in the world, was purchased by Executive Chair Bill Ford and revealed during the 150th anniversary of Henry Ford’s birth in 2012. The car remains on display in the lobby of Ford’s World Headquarters in Dearborn. 

Henry Ford and son Edsel Ford are seen here driving in a Ford Model F in 1905. The car was one of many created (and named in alphabetical order) before Ford landed a smash hit with the Model T in 1908.

The original Model A was the first in a slew of alphabet-oriented models that paved the way for the groundbreaking Model T. Ford’s Model N is considered the most successful prior to the T, but it was just one of 19 models, including experimental vehicles.

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