The Model T brought mobility within reach of ordinary workers. Despite huge improvements, affordability has eroded as real costs climb.

While most of my fellow Michiganders like to think of Detroit as the birthplace of the automobile, we have to remember, the Germans have us beat.

German inventor and entrepreneur, Carl Benz submitted his patent application on January 29, 1886, and as car buffs know, this represented the advent of the world’s first production automobile, the Motorwagen. The story goes that its maiden roadtrip was taken by Benz’s wife, Bertha and their two sons, Eugen and Richard, supposedly without letting the inventor know! That Model #3 topped out at two-horsepower and a blistering 10 miles per hour. Despite its humble specs, Bertha took it out on an arduous 121-mile route now named in her honor, running from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back.

The lore surrounding the Motorwagen’s origins have become settled auto history. Less clear, strangely, is the original sales price. Reported estimates put the price tag at anywhere from $150 (600 German marks) to $1,000. As one would imagine, even the lower price point would have been a hefty purchase for the average German at that time, with an estimated annual income per person between 400 to 500 marks. For some years, the purchase of an automobile would remain a luxury, reserved for the upper crust of society in both Europe and the US. That is, until the rise of the Ford Motor Company’s Model T in 1908.

...read more at thedailyeconomy.org