The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work

YEAR
PRICE
PRODUCTION
1909–10
$950
18,664 cars
1910–11
$780
34,528  
"
1911–12
$690
78,440  
"
1912–13
$600
168,220  
"
1913–14
$550
248,307  
"
1914–15
$490
308,213  
"
1915–16
$440
533,921  
"
1916–17
$360
785,432  
"
1917–18
$450
706,584  
"
1918–19
$525
533,706  
"
1919–20
$575 to $440
996,660  
"
1920–21
$440 to $355
1,250,000  
"
Note:  Years 1917 to 1919 were war years and the factory 
was in war work.
BENCHMARKING
Benchmarking is the study of competitors’ (and other) products to identify 
best practices, and it was central to Ford’s quality improvement efforts.

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130  •  The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work
* * *
The high prices of 1921 were, considering the financial inflation, not really 
high. At the time of writing the price is $497. These prices are actually lower 
than they appear to be, because improvements in quality are being steadily 
made. We study every car in order to discover if it has features that might be 
developed and adapted. If any one has anything better than we have we want 
to know it, and for that reason we buy one of every new car that comes out. 
Usually the car is used for a while, put through a road test, taken apart, and 
studied as to how and of what everything is made. Scattered about Dearborn 
there is probably one of nearly every make of car on earth. Every little while 
when we buy a new car it gets into the newspapers and somebody remarks 
that Ford doesn’t use the Ford. Last year we ordered a big Lanchester—which 
is supposed to be the best car in England. It lay in our Long Island factory for 
several months and then I decided to drive it to Detroit. There were several 
of us and we had a little caravan—the Lanchester, a Packard, and a Ford or 
two. I happened to be riding in the Lanchester passing through a New York 
town and when the reporters came up they wanted to know right away why 
I was not riding in a Ford.
“Well, you see, it is this way,” I answered. “I am on a vacation now; I am 
in no hurry, we do not care much when we get home. That is the reason I am 
not in the Ford.”
You know, we also have a line of “Ford stories”!