Comment on “Any color the customer wants, as long as it’s black.”
PugJesus@piefed.social 1 day ago
Explanation: As one of the time/cost-saving measures to produce a car cheap enough for ordinary American consumers, one of the restrictions implemented by industrialist Henry Ford was that the (soon-to-be-famous) Model T car would be produced only in black. By minimizing the variations needed to be produced, the assembly line could churn out completed products just a little bit faster, and thereby decrease the cost (or increase the profit margin) just a little bit more.
lime@feddit.nu 1 day ago
this is a factoid, even if it is straight from the horse’s mouth. ford wrote in his autobiography that he said this in 1909, but the model t was originally only available in grey, green, blue, and red. in 1912 they took away the choice of color and sold two-tone t’s painted dark blue with black fenders. they only started with the black in 1914, after five years of production.
arrow74@lemmy.zip 21 hours ago
So partially true? Seems like as the business grew eventually it was black only to further optimize production
lime@feddit.nu 19 hours ago
yup, it was a cost-cutting measure.