Buying a Newer Car

February 19, 1936  14° cold [0° F.].  Mama and Mary mended.  We got a car from Meade, a 1929 Ford sedan.  We traded with Merril Dye for our Touring and $50.00.

In a sign that the worst of the Great Depression had passed by early 1936, Cornelius traded for a newer car.  Since he always bought Fords, he traded his Ford Model T Touring car and $50 for a 1929 Ford Model A sedan.  

A 1927 Ford Model T Touring Sport.  This would have been similar to the Siemens' car, although we do not know what year their Model T was.

A touring car is an open car with a canvas top and curtains that could be pulled up to protect the passengers from the weather.  In contrast, a sedan was a closed-in car.  

1929 Ford Model A Standard 165A Fordor.  Again probably similar to the Siemens car.

The Model T was produced 1908-27 with a 2.9-liter engine that produced 20 horsepower and a 2-speed transmission.  It was the first car produced on an assembly line, Henry Ford’s great contribution to the car industry, which had made it affordable for a middle-class family.  And Ford produced the same model for twenty years with only minor tweaks!

The Model A was produced 1928-31, and it had a 3.3-liter engine that produced 40 horsepower and a 3-speed transmission, with a top speed of 65 mph.  Clearly this was a much better car than the Model T that the Siemens traded away. 

The Model T was designed before the now-standard driver controls of a gearshift, accelerator, brake pedal, and clutch pedal were developed.  Instead, it had a timing stalk to adjust the rate of fire for the spark plugs, a throttle stalk to adjust the flow of fuel,a foot pedal to change gears, a reverse pedal to engage reverse, and brake pedal.  Since the Model A had the modern driver controls, Cornelius and the boys would have had to learn a new way of driving.  [UPDATE:  Actually, Jake and Corney had likely already bought their "dating cars," which surely were not old-fashioned Model T's, so I imagine that boys already knew how to use the new driver controls.]

(It is a little confusing that the Model T was an older car than the Model A.  Ford Motor Company had lettered its first models from A through T, but the Model T was the first big seller.  When it came time to replace it in 1929, the new model was such a major upgrade that Henry Ford wanted to start over with the lettering, so instead of naming the Model T's successor the Model U, he called it the Model A.)