In the earliest days of motoring, cars were hand-built by craftsmen and cost so much that they were never expected to be anything other than playthings for the rich. Then, along came Henry Ford with his dream of making ”a car for the great multitude” so low in price that almost everyone would be able to own one.

Ford’s invention of the mass-produced car transformed western civilisation. It changed the shape of our cities by accelerating migration to the suburbs. It gave rise to vast new factory-based industries making vehicles and their components. It opened up unprecedented leisure and holiday opportunities by letting people travel wherever they wanted. It gave us shopping malls, theme parks, motels and McDonald’s.