So why do we prefer FoMoCo vehicles?

I prefer the designs over any domestic auto maker. Some European autos are pretty nice lookin' to me, but I may not ever own a high dollar Ferrari or Lambo.

No matter how the picture is painted about Ford, I will buy one as long as they are being produced.

 

This is a really interesting topic. Lots of great info. Its amazing how Henry still gets credit for the assembly line. Anyway keep the history lessons coming.

 

Olds pushed their cars down the assembly line, Ford's was mechanized.

Most ppl know little about Olds' pioneering assembly line because just after it was implemented, Olds' factory burned to the ground.

Ransom Eli Olds, like Henry Ford, quarreled with his financial backers, and left the company in 1904.

The reason was the same for both Ford and Olds. The money men wanted to concentrate on high dollar cars, not what Ford or Olds wanted to do.

When Olds left, he started a new company but he couldn't use his last name, so he used his initials instead: REO.

From 1902 thru 1907, the Curved Dash Olds was the number one selling car in the world.

When Olds introduced the expensive Limited model in 1908, sales dropped to nothing. The company teetered on bankrupcy, and was soon sold to William Crapo (Billy) Durant.

Billy Durant was another pioneer. In 1905, he bought Buick from another disgrunted auto pioneer...David Dunbar Buick.

When Durant bought Olds in 1908, he changed the company's corporate name from Buick to...General Motors.

Everyone on the planet owes a debt to Buick, not so much for the car, but for the invention that got him the money to enter the car biz.

Buick invented the process that bonded porcelain to cast iron...think of that the next time you take a bath or sit on the....

btw: The flush toilet was partially invented and improved by...are you ready for this? Thomas Crapper!

I kid you not!

 

> When chrome bumpers finally were produced, the wooden bumpers were
> replaced free by automakers.

I did not know this! I guess I have more research to do :-)

 

We need to start a auto history forum. I love this stuff.
Did you know that Henry Ford wanted clean living workers? I'm not sure on the exact details but I think he offered his workers a higher wage after a year, if you did not drink or smoke and ate well and kept a clean house. Ford would pay you a visit at home to do an inspection. I think that's how it worked. He monitored your private life style.

 

Yeah, and Henry Ford probably chased women and drank hard liquor each night. Just Kidding, I don't have the slightest idea. But that is typical, corporate not only running your lives at work, but wanting to run them at home on your own time.

I cannot complain about Ford though. They treated my dad quite well in his last days. He worked for them for 45 years. When he developed cancer, they were right there. They paid his life insurance off, even the hazardous part that doubled it without batting an eye.

 

A History Forum was suggested several months ago by Greywolf, but after a few days, it died on the vine for lack of interest (that was OK by me).

Ford would walk the vast Rouge parking lots with members of Harry Bennett's "goon squad." If he found a non Ford vehicle, the worker was fired.

Ford offered the 5 buck a day wage to keep workers on the job, not because they didn't drink or smoke!

Ford wanted clean living workers, but there was a limit to how far he would go. Offering them 5 bucks an day not to drink or smoke would have been ridiculous. Ford was known far and wide as Mr. Tightwad personified.

The REAL reason: Back then, workers didn't last too long. The job, like now was repetitious, the working conditions were awful, and there was no UAW. Workers quit by the 100's daily.

So to keep workers, Ford offered the 5 buck wage, but the workers had to be on the job for a minimum of one year to collect it.

Ford rarely visited any assembly line workers's home.

The conversations prolly would have been one sided, because most of Detroits autoworkers back then were immigrants from Eastern Europe and spoke next to no English.

 

Does anybody know of modern day FoMoCo innovations.

Recycling
Green design
Factory innovations.

Is it true that a European plant has grass planted on the roof, or is it another auto maker that has done this?

 

My Dad had a 1972 f250 4x4 that he bought for work.

We lived in Portsmouth, Nh at the time, winter of 76 I believe...anyways

We went down to the tidal marsh to get bait for smelt fishing one evening and got stuck in the mud.

it took about 4 hours to get unstuck...it was so much fun i have always loved Ford Trucks since!

Mark

 

It is just as much fun trying to figure out how to get it unstuck as it is sticking them up to the frame. I have done that several times in the old F-150 that I had. I have stuck up the Super Duty twice. Once in my back yard (was able to talk the X into new tires for that one) and once in a field taking the daughter's horse to a show (got a stowable winch out of that one).