Saturday, December 08, 2007
CONSUMERISM SYMBOLISED
Automotive history rewritten by British socialists:
A hundred years ago, Ford became a symbol of the consumer society, continually bringing out new models.
Oh, yes! It was a frantic time for the fledgling automaker, launching new models daily in a bid to achieve market dominance. Vehicles were sometimes launched and then superseded within the hour, such was the pace of Ford’s relentless consumer exploitation. Behold the outrageous cavalcade of models introduced by Ford way back when:
• 1908: Model T
• 1909: Model T
• 1910: Model T
• 1911: Model T
• 1912: Model T
• 1913: Model T
• 1914: Model T
• 1915: Model T
• 1916: Model T
• 1917: Model T
• 1918: Model T
• 1919: Model T
• 1920: Model T
• 1921: Model T
• 1922: Model T
• 1923: Model T
• 1924: Model T
• 1925: Model T
• 1926: Model T
• 1927: “On May 25, 1927, Ford abruptly announced the end of production for the Model T, and soon after closed the Highland Park factory for six months. The shutdown was not for retooling: there was no new model in the works. In history’s worst case of product planning, Henry sent the workers home so that he could start to design his next model.”
