Ford Model T 100th Year Celebration

So far, 2008 hasn't exactly been a banner year for Ford, to put it mildly. But this week the Blue Oval put its present struggles on hold for a short while to celebrate a true milestone of its past -- the legendary Model T. Joining with enthusiasts and collectors from around the world, Ford held a massive "T Party" to commemorate the 100th birthday of the car that changed the automotive world forever.

It's difficult to overstate the historical importance of the Ford Model T -- the vehicle's production spawned innovations like assembly-line manufacturing, interchangeable parts, and the $5 a day minimum wage for workers. Henry Ford's creation was the first car specifically designed for the average consumer and helped create the era of personal transportation we know today.

While it's probably a good bet that a cheap, reliable car to "put the world on wheels" may still have been invented if the Model T hadn't been, it probably would have come far later than 1908. If by chance Henry Ford's advancements had never come along at all and cars were still handbuilt with unique parts, well, let's just say most of us would've taken the trolley to work this morning.

Yet, while history textbooks usually contain at least a mention of the "Tin Lizzie" and its impact on the world, at a time when we take cars for granted it's easy to forget just how big that impact really was. Today, most automakers rarely let their vehicles go more than three or four years without a freshening, but the Model T was sold continuously with few updates for a total of 19 years -- imagine picking up a new ride that had been on the market since 1989. Still, despite the lack of upgrades, over that period Ford moved more than 15 million examples of its people's car, and by 1921 the T accounted for nearly 57 percent of all the vehicles on the road worldwide. At various points, the car was built in 20 different countries, covering every continent except Antarctica -- consider that the next time you read about Toyota's expanding market share.