Ford Trivia
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50 free Ford trivia questions with answers. Ford is the car company that put America on wheels, and this quiz covers the whole 120-year story. Fifty questions run from Henry Ford's 1896 Quadricycle and the 1903 founding through the Model T, the moving assembly line and the $5 day, then on to the Model A, the flathead V8, the Thunderbird, the Mustang, the F-Series pickup, the Edsel disaster, the GT40 humbling Ferrari at Le Mans, the Bronco, Explorer, Taurus, Fiesta and Focus, the years owning Jaguar, Volvo and Land Rover, and the electric Mach-E and F-150 Lightning. Easy questions ask when the company was founded and what the Model T was nicknamed; the hard ones want the poet who pitched names for the Edsel, what Henry Ford first planned to build on the Rouge site and which car Alan Mulally drove to Washington in 2008. There are also two clearly labelled bonus questions on the other famous Fords, Harrison and Gerald. Made for car people, Detroit people and anyone who has ever owned a blue oval. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the company, its founders and its cars, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was the Ford Motor Company incorporated?
1903
It launched in a converted factory with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, including brothers John and Horace Dodge.
Q 02In which Michigan city is Ford Motor Company headquartered?
Dearborn
Its longtime headquarters building, the Henry Ford II World Center, is nicknamed the Glass House.
Q 03What was the Model T's famous nickname?
Tin Lizzie
Its 20-horsepower four-cylinder engine gave it a top speed of about 42 mph.
Q 04In what year did production of the Model T begin?
1908
The first one was built on August 12 at the Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit, and the last rolled out in May 1927.
Q 05Roughly how many Model Ts were built in total?
15 million
Henry Ford personally watched the 15 millionth car roll off the Highland Park line on May 26, 1927.
Q 06In its first years, 1908 to 1913, which colour was the Model T famously NOT available in?
Black
The 'any colour so long as it is black' policy was only actually implemented in 1914.
Q 07By 1925 the price of a Model T had fallen to about how much?
$260
Ford was turning out 9,000 to 10,000 cars a day that year, about 2 million annually.
Q 08After the moving assembly line started in 1913, how long did it take to build a Model T?
93 minutes
The process was split into 45 steps and output rose roughly eight to one.
Q 09Ford's famous January 1914 wage announcement raised the minimum daily pay from $2.34 to what?
$5.00
It more than doubled most workers' pay and business partner James Couzens may have talked Ford into it.
Q 10What did Henry Ford call the self-propelled vehicle he completed and test-drove in June 1896?
Quadricycle
It ran on four bicycle wheels, was steered with a tiller and reached about 20 mph.
Q 11After Henry Ford left the Henry Ford Company in 1902, it was renamed and became which luxury marque?
Cadillac
So the founder of Ford is also, in a roundabout way, behind General Motors' luxury brand.
Q 12In 1915 Henry Ford funded a 'Peace Ship' to Europe at the urging of which pacifist?
Rosika Schwimmer
The mission to end World War I was widely mocked and achieved nothing.
Q 13Charcoal briquettes made from Model T wood scraps, first sold as Ford Charcoal, became which brand?
Kingsford
The name honours E. G. Kingsford, Ford's cousin by marriage, who brokered the site of the sawmill and wood-distillation plant.
Q 21Which Ford brand, launched on 'E Day' in 1957 and dropped after 1960, became a byword for failure?
Edsel
It arrived in a recession that hammered every medium-priced car, and its vertical grille was mocked as a horse collar.
Q 22Ford's ill-fated 1958 mid-price brand had Teletouch push-button transmission controls mounted where?
In the steering wheel hub
They were dropped after one year because of reliability problems.
Q 23Which poet suggested names like 'Utopian Turtletop' for Ford's doomed 1958 brand?
Marianne Moore
Her other suggestions included 'Pastelogram', 'Resilient Bullet' and 'Mongoose Civique'.
Q 14In the 1937 'Battle of the Overpass', Ford security men beat which future UAW president?
Walter Reuther
Photos of the injured organisers ran in newspapers the next day and became a turning point for the union.
Q 15When Henry Ford bought the future site of the River Rouge plant in 1915, what did he plan to build there?
A bird sanctuary
Instead it became one of the largest factories in the world, completed in 1928 and a National Historic Landmark since 1978.
Q 16The 1927 Model A was the first production car with what feature in its windshield?
Laminated safety glass
One million Model As had been sold by February 1929.
Q 17What was the nickname of the Ford Trimotor, the three-engined airliner that first flew in 1926?
Tin Goose
Pan American used Trimotors on its first international scheduled flights, from Key West to Havana in 1927.
Q 18During World War II, which bomber did Ford mass-produce at its Willow Run plant?
B-24 Liberator
Willow Run was thought to be the largest factory under one roof anywhere in the world.
Q 19Ford bought Lincoln in 1922 from which founder, who had earlier taken over Ford's second company?
Henry Leland
Lincoln was founded in 1917 and named after Abraham Lincoln.
Q 20Which Ford brand, produced from the 1939 to 2011 model years, was named after a Roman god?
Mercury
The company's then president chose the name personally from more than 100 options to fill the gap between Ford and Lincoln.
Q 24Which Ford model debuted for 1955 as a two-seater created to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette?
Thunderbird
Adding a back seat for 1958 launched the 'personal luxury car' segment.
Q 25The first Ford Mustang was introduced on April 17, 1964 at what event?
New York World's Fair
It beat the Plymouth Barracuda to market by only 16 days.
Q 26The original Mustang was built on the platform of which compact Ford, the Big Three's first compact car?
Falcon
Early cars even had the compact's logo on the horn ring, hidden under a Mustang trim ring.
Q 27Which Mustang champion was fired by Henry Ford II in 1978 and went on to run Chrysler?
Lee Iacocca
He was fired despite Ford posting a $2 billion profit that year.
Q 28Which Ford model line was the best-selling US vehicle every year from 1981 to 2024?
F-Series
It has been the best-selling pickup line since 1977 and Canada's best-selling truck for over 50 years.
Q 29Ford's GT40 won the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, ending a six-year winning streak by which manufacturer?
Ferrari
Ford had tried to simply buy the Italian firm in 1963, only for Enzo to walk away late in negotiations.
Q 30What does the '40' in GT40 refer to?
Its height in inches
Measured at the top of the windscreen, that was the minimum height the rules allowed.