Otto Explains — Legendary Cars
The Legendary Cars That Defined Ford
Short Answer
Eight cars changed Ford as a company. They are the Model T, which made it a mass producer; the 1928 Model A, its costly restart; the F-Series trucks; the Mustang, which created the pony car; the Fiesta, its first international front-wheel-drive success; the Taurus, a turn towards design and quality; the Explorer, which took Ford into SUVs; and the Mustang Mach-E, which carried the Mustang name into electric cars. Each is organised here by the change it caused, not by fame.
How did Otto choose these cars?
Otto chose the cars after which Ford worked differently: how it built cars, what it sold, who bought from it and where it sold them. Cars remembered mainly for racing, design or fame, such as the GT40, the Thunderbird, the Bronco, the Shelby GT350, the Ford GT and the Raptor trucks, are in Otto’s ten iconic Fords. The order below is chronological.
How did the Model T turn Ford into a mass producer?
The Model T was launched on 1 October 1908 at $850, built of light, strong vanadium steel, and dealers had placed 15,000 orders before the first one was made. To meet demand Ford moved it to the Highland Park plant, where the moving assembly line of 1913 eventually cut chassis assembly from 12.5 hours to 1.5. Output rose from about 200,000 cars in 1913 to more than 820,000 in 1919, and the price fell to as little as $260. The car also changed Ford’s workforce: the $5 Day of 1914 doubled pay for an eight-hour day at a time when labour turnover had reached 380 per cent. When production ended on 26 May 1927, Ford had built some 15 million.
Why did the 1928 Model A matter?
Because Ford had to stop to build it. When the Model T ended in 1927, Ford closed its plants for six months to retool, and it named the new car the Model A, after the company’s first car of 1903. It brought a safety-glass windscreen and was the first Ford to wear the Blue Oval, and more than five million were sold by 1931. Henry Ford gave the very first one to his friend Thomas Edison; it is now at The Henry Ford museum.
How did the F-Series make Ford a truck company?
Ford had built trucks since the one-ton Model TT of 1917, but they were based on cars. The F-Series of 1948 was Ford’s first truck on a purpose-built truck platform, sized from the F-1 to the F-8. In 1953 the F-100 took over, and in 1984 the F-150 line replaced the F-100. Ford says the F-Series has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States since 1982, and in 2015 it turned the F-150 into an aluminium-bodied truck that weighed up to 750 pounds less.
What did the Mustang change?
It gave Ford a new kind of car and a new kind of buyer. Ford tested the idea with the Mustang I and Mustang II concepts at Watkins Glen in 1962 and 1963, then presented the production car at the New York World’s Fair on 17 April 1964. More than 22,000 were ordered in the first weekend and more than 420,000 sold in the first calendar year, and the one millionth Mustang left Dearborn on 2 March 1966. Ford says the Mustang defined the pony car: a long bonnet, a short boot, an affordable price and many options. According to S&P Global Mobility, it was still the world’s best-selling sports car in 2024.
How did the Fiesta change Ford in Europe?
The Fiesta of 1976 was Ford of Europe’s small hatchback and the company’s first internationally successful front-wheel-drive model. It was Ford’s biggest development project to that date, at $870 million, and Ford built a new plant for it at Almusafes, near Valencia in Spain. In its first year it broke the 1965 Mustang’s one-year sales record. The Fiesta ran to seven generations and more than 22 million sales before its last car was built at Cologne in 2023.
Why was the 1985 Taurus a turning point?
The Taurus’s rounded, aerodynamic shape broke with the boxy saloons of its time and helped make it one of Ford’s most popular cars. Inside the company, Ford says, it marked a shift to higher quality standards and to front-wheel drive for its family cars.
How did the Explorer take Ford into the SUV business?
Introduced in 1990, the Explorer replaced the small Bronco II and, Ford says, helped launch the domestic SUV market as SUVs took the place of family saloons, estates and vans. It became one of Ford’s most successful vehicles, and Ford’s full-size SUV line grew from it: when the last original Bronco was built in 1996, the larger Expedition took its place.
Why did Ford give the Mustang name to an electric SUV?
When Ford revealed the all-electric Mustang Mach-E in 2019, it was the first new member of the Mustang family in 55 years, and it marked Ford’s move to put its best-known name on an electric car. Ford now runs its electric vehicles and software as a separate business, Ford Model e, and the Mach-E is the electric model on Ford’s Oman website. How an electric car differs from a hybrid is explained in Otto’s guide to hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric cars.
Common Questions
- How many Model Ts did Ford build? Some 15 million, from 1908 until the last one left Highland Park on 26 May 1927.
- Was there a Ford Model A before 1928? Yes. Ford’s first car of 1903 was also called the Model A, and Ford reused the name for the 1928 car to commemorate it.
- Why isn’t the GT40 among the cars that changed Ford? The GT40’s four Le Mans wins in a row, from 1966 to 1969, changed Ford’s image in racing rather than how the company built and sold cars, so Otto includes it among the ten iconic Fords.