Henry Ford failed twice before Ford Motor Company, and one of those failures still sells cars today under a badge you know. This is the history of Ford, from a farm boy’s engine in a Detroit shed to the F-Series, America’s best-selling truck: the two companies that came first, the Model T, the moving assembly line, the five-dollar day, the rivalry with Chevy, and the engine maker who came back to haunt Henry Ford.
Under the Badge is Roadignite’s car brand history series: one car brand per episode, checked against what really happened, and you decide who got it right. Full playlist:
In this Henry Ford documentary: the 1896 Quadricycle, the Detroit Automobile Company and the Henry Ford Company, the 1901 race against Alexander Winton, the founding of Ford Motor Company in 1903, the Model T, the car assembly line at Highland Park, the Dodge brothers’ lawsuit, Edsel Ford and the Model A, the Battle of the Overpass, Willow Run, Henry Ford II and the Whiz Kids, the Edsel, the Mustang, Le Mans 1966, the 2006 loan that put up the blue oval, and the F-Series today. Ford history told as automotive history.
Chapters
0:00 Henry Ford failed twice first
0:55 The shed door: Henry Ford’s first car
1:53 Strike one, strike two: Ford’s first two companies
3:14 Third time: Ford Motor Company, the Model T and the assembly line
5:03 Nobody told him no: Ford vs Chevy
6:36 The grandson: Henry Ford II and the Whiz Kids
7:31 A flop, a pony and a grudge: Edsel, Mustang, Le Mans
8:32 Betting the blue oval: no bailout
9:24 The engine maker
How we tell it: facts are checked against at least two sources. The Detroit Automobile Company’s 20 vehicles and 86,000 dollars come from company histories; the assembly line times (12 h 30 min, 5 h 50 min, about 93 minutes by 1914) are Ford’s own figures; “any color so long as it’s black” is from Henry Ford’s 1922 book. The Ford vs Ferrari insults often repeated online can’t be proven, so they are not used. Money figures are history, not today’s prices.
Sources: Ford Motor Company history (corporate.ford.com, fromtheroad.ford.com, media.ford.com); The Henry Ford museum collections; Detroit Historical Society; Walter P. Reuther Library (Battle of the Overpass); Wikipedia (Detroit Automobile Company, Henry Ford Company, Cadillac, Lincoln Motor Company, Henry M. Leland, Dodge v. Ford, Edsel Ford, Henry Ford II, Edsel); Britannica; HISTORY.com; Automotive Hall of Fame; Hagerty; Jalopnik; Mac’s Motor City Garage; Time (Edsel; Ford’s blue oval); Motor Sport (Le Mans 1966); Ford 2025 US sales release; Autobody News and Electrive (Ford’s 2025 EV charge).
Roadignite is an independent channel, not affiliated with or endorsed by Ford or its parent company. Brand names and logos belong to their owners; photos are credited above.
So was Henry Ford’s real talent building cars, or refusing to quit? Tell us in the comments, and subscribe to Roadignite for the next episode: Chevrolet, and the racer whose name outlived his time at the company.
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