:See also Ford Model A (1903)

The Ford Model A was the second huge success for the Ford Motor Company, after its predecessor, the Model T. First produced on October 20, 1927, but not sold until December 2, it replaced the venerable Model T, which had been produced for 18 years. This new Model A (a previous model had used the Model A name back in 1903) was designated as a 1928 model and was available in four standard colors, but not black. There has also been ongoing speculation for many years that the Ford Model A was based on the 1925 Peugeot 201 automobile as the two automobiles bear a striking resemblance.

The successor to the Model A was the Model B which featured an updated 4-cylinder engine, and by the Model 18 which introduced Ford's new V8 engine.

The Ford Model T (colloquially known as the Tin Lizzie and also the Flivver) was an automobile produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from 1908 through 1927. The Model T set 1908 as the historic year that the automobile came into popular usage. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, the car that "put America on wheels"; some of this was because of Ford's innovations, including assembly line production instead of individual hand crafting, as well as the concept of paying the workers a wage proportionate to the cost of the car, so that they would provide a ready made market.Ford also attempted a "buy on time" program to aid sales, resembling that of the German Kdf-Wagen forerunner of the Volkswagen Beetle. Ford's plan was not a success, either. The first production Model T was built on September 27, 1908, at the Piquette Plant in Detroit, Michigan.

There were several cars produced or prototyped by Henry Ford from the founding of the company in 1903 until the Model T came along. Although he started with the Model A, there were not 19 production models; some were only prototypes. The production model immediately before the Model T was the Ford Model S Early Ford - models from the years 1903 - 1908; page 5, an upgraded version of the company's largest success to that point, the Model N. For no reason, the follow-up was the Ford Model A and not the Model U. Company publicity said this was because the new car was such a departure from the old that Henry wanted to start all over again with the letter A. As it happens, the first Plymouth car (1928), built by competitor Chrysler Corporation, was named the Model U.

The Ford Model T was named the world's most influential car of the twentieth century in an international poll. [http://info.detnews.com/joyrides/story/index.cfm?id=75 Joyrides | Car of the Century? Ford's Model T, of course]

Henry Ford-"I will build a car for the great multitude. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for the individual to run and care for. It will be constructed of the best materials, by the best men to be hired, after the simplest designs that modern engineering can devise. But it will be low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one-and enjoy with his family the blessing of hours of pleasure in God's great open spaces."