Ford Motor Company

The Ford Motor Company is a multinational car manufacturer based in Dearborn, Michigan, and appears on display in the Museum. The brand is known for having a big history producing some of the most popular, well-known and innovative cars of the last 100 years.

## Synopsis

Ford began life as a joint venture between Henry Ford and Thomas Edison in 1899 to construct race cars to use in endurance races. Their first car, the Ford 001 was a success in the racing scene, but tensions grew between Ford and Edison, and Edison left the company in 1902, and Ford went on to establish the Ford Motor Company in 1903. The company's first model, the Model A, was a big success, and was one of America's first mass produced motorcars. In 1908, the Model T was introduced to the market, and was the first ever car to use assembly line production, making it a lot cheaper to both manufacture and to purchase. This long lasting model sold over 750,000 units, and was discontinued in 1927, 19 years after its initial release. In the 1910s, Ford started to move business elsewhere, beginning in the UK, where it manufactured Model Ts at a new purpose-built factory in Dagenham, Essex. In 1922, Ford purchased Lincoln, a slightly new luxury car maker, made to build luxury and executive counterparts of the existing Model A and V-8 models. By the 1930s, the brand was starting to grow exponentially, and sought business in other areas, such as France, Japan and Nazi Germany. In Germany, the company started to manufacture army trucks, like the V3000, and also, they helped manufacture the Willys Jeep in 1941 with the help of Willys-Overland and American Bantam. The brand founded Mercury in 1938 as an entry-level brand to encourage younger consumers to purchase new cars. After the Second World War, Ford had a massive global line-up of some very prestigious automobiles, like the British-made Anglia, Pilot and Prefect, as well as the German-made Taunus and Köln. In 1954, the main American branch released the Thunderbird, a luxurious convertible car that became famous upon release, due to its distinctive shape and colour schemes. It was an instant success, and Ford started to make more luxurious and fascinating models. In 1957, they founded Edsel, a marque made to make cars slotted between the main brand and Lincoln, and their lineup consisted of the likes of the Ranger and Corsair models. These did not sell well, mainly due to their vertical mounted grilles. The brand was discontinued in 1961. Frontenac was a Canadian division founded in 1960, as a marque sold for Mercury-Meteor dealerships in Canada, and were only available for the 1960 model year. 2 main models were released for both main markets in 1962 and 1964 respectively. The Cortina, sold in the UK market in 1962, and the Mustang, a specialty coupe or "Pony Car" as it was coined, in 1964. Both cars were instant successes, and there were more models along the way, such as the Escort in 1968, the Capri in 1969, the Granada in 1972, and the Fiesta in 1976. In America, the LTD started to get success as a big, cheap sedan made for city streets, and there was the infamous Ford Pinto in 1970, which was renowned for causing the largest automotive recall in history, due to the location of the gas tank, which could catch fire if rear-ended. In Europe, the Sierra was released in 1982, and caused a bit of a stir in the market, due to it being a hatchback, when it was made a replacement for the Cortina. A saloon body style was added in 1986. Merkur was an export brand founded in 1984 to bring some of the European Ford models to the US, and only 2 came: the Sierra XR4i, known as the Merkur XR4Ti to avoid confusion with the GMC Sierra pickup and Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera sedan, and the Granada, known as the Merkur Scorpio. The brand went under in 1990. In 1993, the "New Edge" design came into play, and the SN-95 Mustang was the first production model to take advantage. The Ka was released in 1996, and was a supermini made to combat traffic congestion. The Focus, another noteworthy model, was released in 1998, and was pinned as a worthy successor to the Escort. Today, Ford's lineup consists solely of SUVs, pickup trucks and commercial vehicles.