MTFCA Forum

I don’t think there was a lemon law like there is now. I suppose there is still one depending on which state you live in.

I will pay him exactly what he paid for it to eliminate his source of grief.

: ^ )

With the buggy rail I assume it's a 1909 or so. He didn't convince 15 million other folks.

21 cents / mile for garage bill? Maybe he should have driven it more in between his garage visits to reduce his cost.

I knew a guy that bought a new Chrysler Cordoba. Ended up painting a giant lemon on the door. Now thats trouble. I bet a T costs more than that to run today .

It has treaded rear tires, he must have got 4 or 5 years of use out of it even though at 21 cents a mile it sat unused most of the time. Just think what it would cost to board a horse for five years.

It is a 1909, 1910 or 1911. The rear end is later, 1913-14 or later. 21 cents in about 1914 would equal about $2 today.,my 1999 Mercury gets 20 mpg on cost of $2.75 a gallon. That is about 14 cents a mile, not accounting oil or insurance.

Not really enough information to draw many conclusions.

It's interesting to me to compare values from the past with today's prices. One source puts current values at a little over 27 times 1913 prices. Figuring that, his garage bills per mile cost him three times what a horse and buggy would have.

Five years to maintain a horse ? In those days, just over $108.00 imputing hay at $200 today.

I can't see the rear end well enough to say, but it looks reasonably like a 1909-10 case to me, but who am I to gainsay Mr. Leipold ??

Close up, appears pressed steel clam shell rear end. Butterfly rear fender exposed brackets.

Well, you have to look at the car from an owner's perspective from the era.
Really, the Model T is a pretty crude automobile. The early ones, with babbitt rear axle bearings, must have had more than their share of breakdowns and failures. Look at how hard it is to find and early engine, transmission, or rear axle today. Most have been changed, and that means they failed.
There is a reason that planetary transmissions went away. And the Model T Planetary is one of the crudest ever put in a motorcar. I have a 1910 Brush with a 2 speed planetary transmission, and it is better than a Ford T transmission in EVERY way. It has precise and easy adjustments, moves very smoothly in an out of gear, there is no grinding or whirring, and wear is EXTREMELY slow. I just pulled one apart, with the intention of changing the clutch discs, and quickly determined they were just fine. I have no idea of the mileage on that transmission, but the discs are barely worn at all. It was designed, like the rest of the Brush, by Alonson Partridge Brush, and he was a real engineer. He also was largely responsible for the first Cadillacs, and the Cadillac company was paying him royalties for his patents until 1908/1909.
The design of the Model T Steering is also pretty poor. At the very least, the reduction gears should have been down at the steering box, and NOT at the steering wheel.
I love my Model T, but I also acknowledge it's faults, which are many.
When you drive a Model T, you are driving a car designed in 1908. You should keep that in mind when you are operating it. You may have a 1925 Model T, but it is STILL a 1908 automobile, no matter what.
Just as a comparison, Brush lists their operating costs at 2 Cents per mile. It was cheaper to buy a Brush than it was to use a streetcar, and FAR more economical than a horse and buggy, which cost about $200 for the buggy, and $200 for the horse, and then the vet and shoeing bills, and feed bills for the horse were ongoing, even when the buggy was parked.

The rear end appearwd to be fatter than the expanded view, which could make them a clam shell casings.

My dad knew a guy who bought a car and painted the word "Lemonzine" on the side in big white letters.

In the old days there were no driving schools or driving instructors. You went in to buy a car at the dealer and you were given a five minute instruction on how to drive and you were out the door and on your own from then on. Most often the problem was the nut behind the wheel and too proud to admit he or she was a fool so it was easier to blame the car manufacturer. Yes there were lemons even then but lack of driving knowledge and or experience was the main problem. That problem has not gone away, there still is a lot of drivers with an official drivers license that can’t drive worth a damn.
Just my foolish thought.
Frank