Ford refuses to abandon Model T

Henry Ford gave up the Model T reluctantly for the Model A. What kind of monstrosity would have ensued if he kept the Model T? Would he have tried to put a V8 engine in; would he have tried to employ 30's streamlining?
 
The problem is that by the time that the Model A was introduced, the Model T was VERY outdated. If Ford kept churning out the Model T, then Ford's position would be worse than VW many years later. Ford would probably not exist today.
 
Today the big three american Automoble makers General motors, American Motors with its Ford division, and Sutabaker/Packard, with it's jeep, annouced ....................
 
I could see the T with a V8, but not streamlining. From there, Ford would have gone more towards truck manufacturing. A factory-built Model T PU was only introduced in 1925. Combine, low cost, toughness, and no frills, and i see the T PU and TT being produced through the 30s. By then, most passenger Ts would be built by specialty builders, buying frames from Ford and fitting custom bodies. Even this market would be gone by the 40s.

Ford already owned Lincoln, so their survival is not in question. I think they would have become more like GMC, that the parent company is Ford, but the only vehicles badged Ford are trucks. Maybe their Mercury-analogue would have been early.

Another question, all the people who bought Model As, what're they buying now?
 
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The Model T Ford was outdated for several years before going out of production in 1927. Henry Ford was quite stubborn about the Model T. His son Edsel tried a couple of times to get him to replace or modernize the Model T, and only succeeded in making his father angry.

I don't think Lincoln alone could have carried Ford Motor Company through The Depression. Ford sales by 1925, 1926, and into 1927 were already slipping badly, enough that by 27 Henry himself realized something had to be done. Had they refused to abandon the Model T my guess is Ford sales would have gotten so low that they would have been forced into bankruptcy and Ford Motor Company would have probably been sold. Question is who would have bought it and would it have remained an independent company.

By the way, Ford Motor Company at the time was owned entirely by the Ford Family. It was not until 1956 that Ford went public and began selling stock, and I believe there is still a type of stock that can only be held by members of The Ford Family, by descendents of Henry Ford.

They took only about 6 months to transition from the Model T to the Model A. Had they had more time the Model A might have turned out somewhat differently that in OTL.

Henry Ford hated the standard manual transmission. Of course the principle behind the Model T's planetary transmission is the same as
today's automatic transmission. Henry Ford wanted to keep some form of planetary transmission for the Model A, and was trying to engineer a fully automatic planetary for the Model A, but is was too complicated and they didn't have the time to work it out so the Model A got a regular 3 speed manual like everyone else was using. Had Henry been successful it would have been the first modern automatic.

Another experiment in 1919 was a V-8 engine for the Model T made by combining two Model T engines together on a common crankshaft. It never made it into production. It was too costly, and I think was mostly planned to go against Chevrolet's V-8. But Chevy abandoned their V-8 after 1919 and from 1920 through 1928 built only four cylinder engines. Had a V-8 powered Ford been built in 1919 or 1920 it would have been interesting to see what its effect on the industry would have been.
 
Ford came very near crashing OTL. Had Henry been a bit more stubborn, & stayed in charge....:eek:

There's another option, tho: does this give Edsel the edge to force Henry out? If it does, you might see a very different FoMoCo arise.

Recall, Edsel was in his day a bit like Shelby, with a strong preference for performance & good looks. It was Edsel who conceived the Zephyr, which looked great & had the V12. A new *Ford could make Lincolns & Zephyrs with great styling & high performance (maybe Ardun hemi V8s, instead of the flatty, & maybe hemi V12s instead of the OTL flathead, too, but certainly V8s & V12s), leaving the bottom of the market to Willys, Chevy, & (if it isn't butterflied away by the growth of Willys) Plymouth. You might see Plymouth & Desoto never happen.

If this means *Ford goes after Buick, LaSalle, Chrysler, & Cadillac...:eek: What eventually happens is anybody's guess. It might even influence Packard's pricing of the 120, so it's aimed more at Cad & Lincoln than Buick...which could (just) save Packard.

Would Edsel be inclined to buy Cord? Or hire Buehrig & build the Cord 810/812 as a Zephyr?:cool::cool::cool: (The very idea of an 810 with a blown hemi V12...:cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool::cool: )

Without Ford, is there room for Graham & Hudson to survive the '30s?

Without Henry being in charge, does FoMoCo get into war production sooner? Does Ford in the early '50s not do the price cuts that helped kill off the surviving independent carmakers?

Does Edsel send a team to win Le Mans before the '60s?:cool: Does the AC Ace get an Ardun hemi V8 sooner (maybe just the 136ci "65hp", thanks to Britain's nutty RAC hp laws:rolleyes:), as a Ford Europe model?:cool:

Does TheMann have any opinions?:p
 
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