MTFCA Forum

As part of some research for a friend I came across some interesting newspaper clippings:

The first was a letter to the Otago Daily Times, dated 16th Dec 1929. Clearly there had been, or was about to be, a significant increase in the cost of spares, and the writer was unhappy:


Following this was a couple of adverts for Model T's that appeared in the Western Star, 3rd Nov 1933, and in the Alexandra Herald of May 1939.

FYI in 1933 £15 would have been around $10.50 USD. To give some perspective a Model A Phaeton was £145 at the time, and secondhand Model A Roadsters were selling for circa £95:

I never knew you could buy an Electric Model T. Must have only been for sale in NZ.

It has a starter/generator/battery.

DHort wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 05, 2020 10:37 pm

I never knew you could buy an Electric Model T. Must have only been for sale in NZ.

We're pretty special down this way

Actually, I recently took my T to an electric car group evening .

Took several people for a ride and generally had a good time - there's just something about the beat of a T with the muffler end disconnected (not deliberately!) that you don't get with a 'leccy car. I think it was talked about as much as the new Tesla that also attended!

A Model T does not really need a muffler. Just lengthen the tail pipe.

We have to remember that Model T’s were the average mans car. In other words poor to maybe the middle class. And in later years the low to bottom rung in the used car lots. And still the cheapest antique car to restore for the average person.
And still the most popular in the antique field. My opinion of course.

As a result of some other research I was doing I came across a little more New Zealand motoring history. More earlier Ford related rather than specifically Model T, but perhaps interesting all the same.

In 1905 and 1906 we imported several hundred vehicles, of which approx twenty were Ford's and specially designed for our conditions:


And in just one month of 1908 the NZ agents delivered ten Model N's: