The story of the Model A – the American classic that saved Ford

It beat the Great Depression and became an icon

It took a lot to convince Henry Ford that his Model T needed replacing, but even he had to face facts eventually: technology had moved on and Ford was being left behind.

By the mid 1920s, the car which had so dominated the American motor industry was struggling to keep up with more modern rivals, and both Chrysler and GM were snapping at its heels and eating into its profits.

Finally, in 1927, the decision was made to end Model T production and introduce a new Ford for a new age.

That car would be the Model A, and though less well known than its predecessor, it has a decent claim to being every bit as important.

Superior in almost every way to the T, it enabled Ford to survive the Great Depression and become one of the Big Three automakers. 

Here’s the story of how it came to be.

Not this Model A

To avoid confusion, we should point out that the Model A we’re talking about here was the second Ford of that name.

The earlier one, pictured above, actually predated the Model T and was the first product of Henry Ford’s third and final attempt to create a car company.

It went on sale in 1903 and, typically for those early days, did not last long, though it was a financial success.

This Model A

The next Model A was so named because it represented a new start for a company which had relied on the Model T for nearly 20 years.

The upheaval involved in bringing it to market was so enormous that Ford actually stopped building cars entirely for several months in 1927, all but killing its income at a time of great expenditure.

A new look

Although it had some mechanical similarities to the Model T, the Model A looked considerably more modern (like a downsized Lincoln, some people thought), and its major controls were, from a 21st century perspective, far more conventional.

The T’s two-speed epicyclic gearbox, for example, was replaced by a straightforward three-speed manual with a single lever and a pedal clutch.

This was simpler than the arrangement in the T, but without synchromesh the driver had to know, or learn, how to match engine and road speeds.

More power

The 20bhp produced by the Model T’s 2896cc engine wasn’t enough for the later 1920s. The Model A provided double that from a new unit which wasn’t dramatically larger at 3285cc.

The result was that speeds of over 60mph, quite out of the question in an unmodified T, could be maintained in an A until the fuel ran out.

Technical advances

Given the Model A’s level of performance, it was a wise move for Ford to fit brakes on all four wheels.

Other new features included hydraulic shock absorbers and the use of safety glass for the windscreen.

The arrival

After a long period of anticipation (during which it is said that other manufacturers’ sales suffered because customers were waiting to see what the new Ford would be like), the Model A was finally revealed on 2 December 1927.

Estimates of the number of Americans who went to their Ford dealers that day run well into the millions, often exceeding the number of people who actually bought one.

In fact, it is thought that as many as a quarter of the US population viewed it in the week of its launch.

Pop culture

Unlikely as this may seem today, the replacement of the Model T by the Model A inspired Walter O’Keefe to write a song called Henry’s Made A Lady Out Of Lizzie, a reference to the T’s nickname of Tin Lizzie.

Widely recorded (by, for example, Irving Kaufman and Jack Hylton), the song was slightly naughty (for the time), with lines such as, “You ought to see her chassis, it’s sure the best around.”

Advertising

Much of the advertising for the Model A was designed to make it appeal to female drivers. The picture shown here appeared in an ad above the statement, “Winter days are happy days for the woman who drives the new Ford.”

The same ad claimed that the car could also “give men the means by which they can do more work and better work and thereby increase their earning capacity”.

Celebrity owners

Movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were husband and wife from 1920 to 1936.

Right in the middle of their marriage, Fairbanks bought Pickford a Model A as a Christmas present, though considering their combined wealth it was more likely to have been intended as a toy, rather than an important means of getting from A to B.

FDR’s Ford

Although he was a wealthy man who could buy more or less any car he wanted, the second President Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, liked to be seen in more affordable vehicles such as the Model A shown here.

By the time the Model A was introduced, Roosevelt had already contracted the illness which left him partly paralysed, so this car was presumably adapted to allow him to drive it.

Fangio’s first

On 24 October 1936 (according to the semi-official biography, though other sources quote very different dates), a young Argentinian called Juan Manuel Fangio competed in his first ever race in a converted 1929 Model A taxi – which had to be converted back again afterwards.

Fangio was in third place – behind two cars which were later disqualified on technical grounds – when a big end seized two laps before the finish.

He was furious at missing the chance to win 1000 pesos, but it all worked out in the end; he went on to win the F1 World Championship five times, a record which remained unbroken for 46 years.

Composer’s carriage

Austrian composer Alban Berg, now widely recognised as an important figure in 20th century music, had a surprise hit with his 1925 opera Wozzeck. Always fascinated by technology, he used some of the resulting income to buy a 1930 Model A convertible.

He was described by biographers as loving it dearly (Willi Reich) and being infatuated with it (Theodor Adorno).

The car still exists, and was on display in the Technical Museum of Vienna from 2016 to 2019.

The Model AF

The AF was a British version of the Model A which looked identical to the standard model but had a smaller, 2038cc version of the same engine.

Maximum power was just 28bhp, and the highest speed Autocar could reach in it was 54mph, but crucially the AF was much cheaper to tax, and achieved better sales in the UK as a result.

That said, British Model As and AFs were at best moderately popular. Only 14,516 were built, a tiny proportion of a global production run exceeding four million.

The AA truck

The Model A was offered with many body styles including saloon, coupe, convertible and pickup.

Another derivative was a truck called the Model AA, which was based on the car but had a much stronger chassis and a four-speed gearbox.

Twin rear wheels were available as an option to limit (or, in Ford’s words, “reduce very considerably”) the chances of a Model AA coming to grief on soft, rough, wet or frosty ground.

A mountaineering marvel

In 1911, Henry Alexander, son of an Edinburgh Ford dealer, drove a Model T to the top of Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the British Isles. According to a family joke, he did it because his father threatened to cancel his pocket money if he didn’t.

There would be no publicity value in repeating the journey in another Model T, but the arrival of the Model A gave Alexander the excuse to make a second ascent, which he completed in 1928.

A multitude of milestones

It took Ford only 14 months to produce one million Model As. Another milestone was reached in April 1931, when a slant-windscreen Town Sedan 160B became the 20 millionth car ever built by the Ford Motor Company.

Presumed lost, the car was rediscovered in Michigan in 2000. Ford paid for a full restoration in return for being able to use the car in displays and exhibitions for 10 years.

End of the line

Having replaced a car which had been on the market for nearly two decades, the Model A itself survived for only four years and four months.

It was replaced by both the Model B and the Ford V8, which were essentially the same car (pictured) with different engines.

Some things remained the same. The four-cylinder engines were retained, though with more power (48bhp for the 3285cc B and 41bhp for the 2038cc BF), while the truck derivative was called the BB, echoing the naming convention used for the AA.

Crunching the numbers

Estimates of how many Model Bs Ford built vary wildly. One authority puts the number at 4,320,466, while Ford itself claims “over five million”. The Model A Ford Club of America’s website contains a page of body styles totalling 4,858,644. 

Whichever figure is true, the Model A was produced in higher numbers per year (admittedly in a busier market) than the more famous Model T – no mean achievement for the time.

Modded As

Like many other cars of the 1920s and 1930s, the Model A has frequently been used as the basis of hot rods and dragsters.

Often little or nothing of the original car is left – particularly under the bonnet, where big V8 engines produce many times the 40bhp of the old 3285cc four-cylinder – but for some fans even an approximation of the Model A’s shape is more appealing than a more modern design.

A great classic today

It may be approaching 100 years old now, but the Model A still makes a wonderful introduction to vintage motoring.

With so many produced there’s no shortage of examples available to buy – though it can be hard tracking one down that hasn’t been extensively modified, particularly if it’s an American model.

In our 2012 Buyer’s guide we proclaimed it to be “one of the simplest vintage cars to own” and praised it for being “strongly built”, “easy to maintain” and “well supported with spares”. Interested? Prices range from around £10,000 to £20,000, depending on condition.