Why Michigan Still Uses a Ford Model T for Official Government Business
theautopian.com
theautopian.com
Total speculation: I'd bet some combination of collector interest keeping parts available and the relative ease of manufacture of such parts using modern techniques.
https://www.modeltford.com/ claims to sell new and used parts.
A quick bit of Google research suggests that a WWII Jeep would also serve this purpose. But it would be shameful to use a vehicle from Ohio.
Now, most people expect nearly 200k. More if you do proper maintenance (namely preventing rusting)
Is the supposition that they didn't need the digit until recently? I doubt that was a concern - if any, more financial/cosmetic than engineering.
The older cars didn't fail spectacularly. The used car market is made mostly of these repairable cars.
Again, they lasted long enough for the odometer rollover... but also for Toyota trucks to become an icon. These 'junkers' (said lovingly) are how 'everyone' in the Midwest learns to drive and gets to their first job, too.
I'll close with my own crazy assertion! Leases are for people so bored with their work, they need financial commitments to spice things up
Well, we need to specify which ages of car we are talking about.
The used car market is probably mostly made of cars built in the last twenty years. I also had even older times in mind, all the way from Model T to today.
Anything older is legally defined as a classic, to my knowledge. Most of those are either proper junk or collectibles. Not what I'm talking about.
The engineering and tolerances on an 80’s/90’s car just isn’t as good as a modern car. That lead to a lot of premature failures on major components.
They were primitive, and if the manufacturer chose it to be, robust as a result. The alternative was cheap.
Like the Death Star meme, every mechanical thing has a weak point. Well-designed cars put the stuff that breaks in cheap consumable parts in an easy to reach place.
That last piece can have more impact on the price of a repair than the part itself
In any case, I'm not an expert in cars or what people need from their car. I would assume that the people who buy cars know what they want.
That's actually the crux of my ire. To sell more... things are made more cheaply.
I know all too well how much money it costs to be poor. Now that I have means, I'd rather buy one good version than many not good ones.
The thing is, the good options are disappearing because incentives suck. People are happy to buy disposable garbage, they enjoy consuming. I don't.
There's still lots of high-quality expensive options available in many product categories.
You are right that lots of those components will be hard to find as replacement in the future.
Many of the parts can still be made on site in the museum's workshops, too.
https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2015/patty-...
https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digita...
The “normal” T had double to triple the range, at double the speed.
and I don’t think there ever was an electric T, there were barebones prototype frames. What people call electric Ts are usually Detroit Electrics (the specs match).
1 - https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digita...
We've got one in the local car museum, it gets driven out and about every 18 months or so.
Crackin' fuel efficiency: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isetta
In every case I'd rather be in the Fiat 500. The only benefit might be the Model T attracting more attention, but some flashing lights and a garish "Road Maintenance" paint scheme could solve that for the Fiat.