You could always buy a vintage motorcycle. You’d get as much protection from the elements as you get with a Model T Ford.
If you want basic shelter, I recommend a classic VW Beetle.
OK, if you want cheap and reliable, try the old WW II Jeeps. Seeing a Phil Silvers old show driving a Jeep made me realize how small, cheap, and dependable these machines were. I remember some years back in a parade, four guys had a Jeep in the parade. Stopped and in about 4 minutes and few tools, had the whole thing disassembled on the street. Engine, wheels, body, etc. pretty much in a pile of parts. Then reassembled it again and drove on to do it again a little farther down the line. So fast that the parade was never really held up.
Llght, good mileage, 4 wheel drive, rugged, and you could even get a top and doors. Why would you want a Model T?
If a car were designed like Triedaq, it would be "cheap and simple"
Mrs. Triedaq
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The product shown in your link is a cab enclosure, the vehicle shown costs $13,000.
There are street legal neighborhood electric vehicles available for less.
I had an M38A1 for years but it was just a toy that was mostly driven to nearby muddy fields and hills for the kids to drive. When the weather was nice I sometimes used it in place of my daily driver and it might have gotten 15 mpg on a good day. It was dangerous above 45 mph and the gear ratio probably limited the top speed to under 60 anyway.
I recall the VW 181 that seemed to be a real utilitarian vehicle that was much simpler and cheaper to own and operate than the jeep but no one is able to meet emission standards with an air cooled engine so there won’t be any updated versions of that vehicle.
And there was the Citroen 2CV which was everthing the VW Beetle was and then some. I occasionally see a restored 2CV and wonder who has the equipment and knowledge to work on them. They were quite unique mechanically.
When I was still a kid, back in the early '60s, my parents and I went to Tanglewood, in Massachusetts.
While my parents were interested in the orchestra, all I was interested in was a 2CV which was parked at that facility. I don’t know how many of these cars were in The US at the time, but I had never before seen one in person, and this made for an exciting experience for me.
I can’t locate the photo at this point, but for many years I proudly displayed the photo of me with that weird little French car.
My brother and I were thinking about people we knew back in the 1950s who bought new cars from the low priced three–Ford, Chevrolet, and Plymouth. Very few people bought the low trimline (e.g. In 1954, the Ford Mainline, Chevrolet 150 or Plymouth Plaza) didn’t attract many customers. In fact, the customers seemed to gravitate toward the high end models like the Ford Fairlane, Chevrolet Bel Air and Plymouth Belvedere. Buyers didn’t want a car that looked cheap.
Even though I don’t care for power windows or power door locks, I have had no problems with power windows and.have only has to put new batteries in the key fobs onw time in 13 years in our 2003 Toyota 4Runner and then I found replacement batteries for a couple.of dollars at WalMart for the key fobs. Except for replacing the filter, I have never had to.do anything to the automatic temperature control system on the HVAC on the 4Runner we have owned for 13 years. On my previous cars with crank windows I have broken the window cranks. Fortunately, universal replacement cranks were available in a display marked HELP at the auto parts store for only a couple of dollars. I had to buy seat covers at Sears for my low trimline 1965 Rambler Classic 550 to cover the worn upholstery. The higher trimlines had better upholstery. I know that Mrs. Triedaq thinks I am cheap and simple, which I probably am, but I am not convinced that the strippo models are any more reliable than the initially more expensive trimlines. I don’t want.to maintain a Jaguar, but I think most cars with a few comforts aren’t hard to maintain.
Take a look at the distributor. It has a cam that opens a point, centrifugal weights and a vacuum diaphragm to advance the timing, and the rotor in the cap is constantly rubbing against a carbon brush. A distributorless ignition system uses a contactless crank angle sensor instead of cam and rotor. The vacuum diaphragm is replaced by a mass air flow sensor. And it can even utilize the knock sensor data to adjust spark timing, something the distributor could not do.
Also, look at the valve body of an automatic transmission from the 70s. There were dozens of spool valves controlling a 3 speed transmission. Today, transmissions use fewer electronically controlled valves to shift 8 and 9 speeds.
Electronics have made the mechanical bits much simpler and added more functionality. If you really want simple, than get an electric car, where the engine only has 1 moving part
One of my cousins in Germany owned a 2CV, when she was young and didn’t have much money
It topped out at about 100 km/h
I’d HARDLY call that freeway-worthy
Maybe a realistic appraisal of what is affordable would result in a downward shift in the model lineup for most buyers. From many sources I read that 70% of American households survive from month to month with less than $1,000 to fall back on. How can those people finance automobiles? But they are financing them. And because those who are virtually broke are able to finance the top of the line trade ins from the marginally comfortable those marginally comfortable can regularly trade up. But for now money is cheap as dirt and no one ‘walks’ away from the car lot. At my age I realize that the easy money situation is the result of financial manipulation and I realize that the auto market is over sold to the extreme in numbers of cars and the oppulance, performance and techno-wizardry of the models. But TARP worked so well for the housing debacle let’s do it again with automobile financing.
It will be interesting to see how the politicians work out TARP II. And more interesting to see how they point their fingers to blame the other party and the banks for the situation that they were too ignorant to recognize or too cowardly to face in the early stages. Maybe I’ll buy a wrecker and go into the Repo business.
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A car like the Model T you say?
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Wow. No wonder they were only $300. Thank you Edsel. I think I’ll stick with stuff made at least in 1950.
Cheap and simple…
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When I was a child, my paternal grandmother used to tell stories about trips the family took in their Model T and Modal A Fords. She was pretty handy as a shade tree mechanic, boasting of how she could completely disassemble either of these vehicles until there was nothing but parts and put them back together again. She would also talk about having to do major repairs on the fly during their trips.
I suppose if by “reliable,” you mean you can fix a Model T on the side of the road and resume your journey, it was pretty reliable.
If by “reliable,” you mean the Model T could be trusted not to break down, that is a complete myth.
Today’s modern engines offer considerably more power
And the AC is phenomenal
…and whether the OP wants to concede this point or not, having enough power to accelerate away from a collision is actually a significant safety factor.
The first time that I ever read that theory was in a published road test (Popular Mechanics? Popular Science?) of a '53 Chrysler with the new Hemi V-8.
The writer spoke about the incredible torque of that engine having provided the only way for him to avoid an imminent collision.
Here’s RK’s picture (hard to get his joke without it):
I well remember that article. Evasive power is very useful. The hemi was a quantum leap in horsepower and torque.
A few years back I met a couple of couples going home from a show that were driving Model Ts, both restored but both as-original. I asked one if the car would go 70. His response was that it had no problem maintaining 70mph, whereupon his wife laughed and commented that the problem was stopping! Original brakes on Model Ts were pretty awful. Everything we now know had to start someplace, and the Model T was where mass-produced affordable cars started.
It sounds like they must have done some work on that T - 70 mph would be way high for a stock one. Most references I can find put it around 50 mph, max. But you’d be surprised at the ‘performance’ equipment you can get!