Last week we talked a little about the importance of keeping your vehicle in proper running order through regular maintenance. This week I thought I’d give you an idea of what servicing your vehicle was like in days gone by. We came across this “mailer” from 1928.
Prices seem pretty inexpensive in those days. According to Wikipedia, the average U.S. income in 1928 was $6,078 per year or $506.50 per month.
It’s also amusing that the mailer says cars could last one, two, maybe even five years! The average length of ownership as of 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, was nudging 5 years and we now average more than 20,000 kilometres per year in driving. Something totally unheard of 84 years ago!
Keep your vehicle longer by keeping it properly maintained and who knows how long you can drive….
While on the topic of “yesteryear” ……
May 31, 1927, the last Ford Model T rolled off the assembly line. It was the first affordable automobile, due in part to the assembly line process developed by Henry Ford. It had a 2.9 liter, 20 horsepower engine and could travel at speeds up to 45 miles per hour. It had a 10 gallon fuel tank and could run on kerosene, petrol, or ethanol, but it couldn’t drive uphill if the tank was low, because there was no fuel pump; people got around this design flaw by driving up hills in reverse.The Model T cost $850 in 1909, and as efficiency in production increased, the price dropped. By 1927, you could get a Model T for $290.
Henry Ford believed that, “the man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed.” “I will build a car for the great multitude,” said Ford. “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.”
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My how technology moves forward!! A 2.9 litre churning out 20 horsepower and now Ford is introducing the 1 litre 3 cylinder producing approximately 125 horsepower and achieving a combined (city/highway) fuel economy rating of more than 56.5 miles per gallon. Watch for it next year in the Fiesta.
