Henry Ford and America’s First Pickup Truck
The USA has had its fair share of major achievements in the realm of motor vehicles, but few feel so soaked in Red, White, and Blue as the creation of the American pickup truck. But if you’re interested in finding where it all started, we’re going to have to dial it back a century. It was a time when President Calvin Coolidge was hunkered down in the White House, the Grand Ole Opry was celebrating its first year on the air, and sculptor Gutzon Borglum was planning up a “Shrine of Democracy” that would later be known as Mount Rushmore. That’s right, the market’s first pickup truck can be traced back as far as the Ford Model T Runabout made by Henry Ford in 1925.
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The ever-evolving nature of the automotive industry serves as a bitter reminder that nothing lasts forever, but some models have managed to stick around for pretty darn long. The Ford Model T was an excellent example with some 15 million models produced over its decades-long production run. The Model T (also nicknamed “Tin Lizzie” or “Leaping Lena”) was introduced in 1908 and had quickly become a standard model of transportation for millions of Americans. And of course, it wasn’t long before American farmers began converting their own Model T’s into makeshift pickups.
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When Was the First Factory Made Pickup Truck Sold?
Henry Ford – being a man who knew a good opportunity when he saw one – rushed to the drawing board and came back with the first completely factory-built pickup truck in 1925. Given the model’s one-of-a-kind appeal, the Ford Model T Runabout quickly became the world’s most popular delivery units. The pickup that spearheaded the American truck market had a 40-horsepower, four-cylinder engine and was priced for the everyday consumer at just $281. The automaker went on to sell 33,800 pickups in the first year of production alone.
