The story of an automobile is one of the most important and exciting chapters in the history of transportation. During the 1890’s automobiles were so new and so strange that they were shown in circuses. By the 1920’s, a Michigan man named Henry Ford developed a system of mass production. Using an assembly line, workers could build many cars at once. In 1925, a brand new Ford car cost $260.00.

Today, about 310 million passenger cars travel on the highways of the world. Most of the world’s automobiles are in the U.S., Canada, Japan , and Western Europe. Ways of life have changed greatly in all those nations because of the automobile. Farm families no longer live lonely lives. Their cars put them within easy reach of cities and towns. City people can quickly get away for weekend trips. Their cars take them on those vacation trips.