Rolling Off the Assembly Line Trivia Quiz

Answer: Panhard & Levassor

Panhard & Levassor was a company started by partners Rene Panhard and Emile Levassor. Originally, their company made woodworking machinery, but in 1889 they changed over to automobiles. By 1890 they were producing vehicles.

The photo shows an 1895 Panhard & Levassor Phaeton, which is housed at the Louwman Museum in The Netherlands.

Answer: Benz Velo

Karl Benz was the inventor of the internal combustion engine, being the first of his contemporaries to receive a patent for his work (in 1879). The Benz Velo (Germany) made history, along with the Duryea Motor Wagon (USA), as being the first vehicles to be standardized and 'mass' produced. In the case of the Velo, there were approximately 200 produced in its two-year run.

The photo shows an 1894 Benz Velo at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.

Answer: 15 million

Henry Ford began his career with the Edison Illuminating Company before pursuing an interest in the new-fangled gasoline engines. He built his first automobile (the Ford Quadricycle) in 1896. Ford formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903, producing his first Model T in 1908, at a price tag of $825.

The introduction of moving assembly belts revolutionized his automobile production, and he was soon making Model Ts at a prodigious rate. By 1916, at the measly price of $360, the Model T was the most popular vehicle on the roads.

Answer: Volvo

Volvo was established in 1915 as a branch of the ball-bearing company AB SKF, and was not originally going to be building automobiles. Thus, it was not until 1927 that the first Volvo car was produced. In more recent years, the Volvo Cars branch of the Volvo company was sold to Ford in 1999, who in turn sold it to Chinese manufacturer Geely Automobile in 2010.

As a point of interest, the car in the photograph IS the first car to roll off the assembly line in 1927. They called it 'Jakob'.

Answer: Toyota

The Toyota Model AA (1936) was the mass production version of the Model A1 prototype, of which three were made in 1935. In total there were 1,404 Model AAs produced between 1936 and 1943.

The automobile branch of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works began with the son of the company's founder in 1933. The name changed from Toyoda to Toyota when they changed the characters used in the kanji writing system to similar ones used in katakana syllabery.

Answer: Ferdinand Porsche

Because of the Second World War, mass production of the 'people's car' was put on hold until 1945. During the war, there were versions of the Type 1 built, but over the war years less than 1,000 units were produced.

In Germany, the Type 1 came to carry the nickname 'Käfer', which translates as 'beetle'. After that, the it began to be marketed as the Beetle in foreign markets.

The photo shows a restored 1949 Beetle.

Answer: China

The first production run of the Hongqi (designated CA72) was based on the 1955 Chrysler. Although other models were produced as well, this original model continued to be produced until 1981.

Over the years, different generations of Hongqi cars have been based on different platforms, including the Audi 100, the Lincoln Town Car, and the Toyota Crown Majesta.

Answer: Morris Oxford II

Morris Motors began in 1912 when the owner changed from automobile repair to automobile manufacture. The company continued to exist as its own entity until 1952 when it was folded into the British Motor Corporation as a subsidiary. The Morris name continued to be used on BMC (and later British Leyland Motor Corporation) vehicles until 1984.

The Hindustan Ambassador, based on the Morris Oxford II, has in recent years faced difficulties when Bharat emission standards (Stage IV) were established in 2010, and sales of Ambassador taxis were banned. In 2011, only 2,500 Ambassadors were sold.

Answer: Lada

The Lada was not only popular within Russia and the Eastern Bloc countries, but was also widely exported. In other countries, it sometimes took on other names. In Germany they were known as Nova, in the United Kingdom as Rivas, and in Canada as Signet. Over 20 million were produced during its production years.

Answer: False

As automobiles were first being developed, both gasoline and electric cars were being made and used. Before the internal combustion engine really took control of the race, it was an electric car that was the first to reach a speed of 100 km/h (in 1899). There were many advantages (quieter, no bone-jarring vibration, and no gasoline smell, but gasoline engines soon were able to produce more power and the difficulties of reliable batteries hindered electric car development.

As for mass production, it was already in 1897 that the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia was providing a commercial fleet of taxis to the city of New York.