Ford Trivia
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49 free Ford trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
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 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which brothers were among the Ford Motor Company's twelve original investors?
Dodge
Dodge brothers John and Horace built the engines and chassis of the earliest Fords and held a tenth of the company's stock, then launched a rival car of their own in 1914.
Q 02In which Michigan city is Ford Motor Company headquartered?
Dearborn
Dearborn is Henry Ford's home ground: he was born on a farm there in 1863, built his Fair Lane estate in the city and died there in 1947.
Q 03What was the Model T's famous nickname?
Tin Lizzie
Tin Lizzie cost about $850 when it appeared in 1908, but Ford kept cutting the price as output soared, until a basic one sold for as little as $260.
Q 04Henry Ford was once chief engineer at a company named for which inventor?
Edison
Edison Illuminating Company of Detroit made Ford its chief engineer in 1893; he built his first car in his spare hours and quit in 1899 to start an automobile firm.
Q 05Roughly how many Model Ts were built in total?
15 million
About 15 million Model Ts were built between 1908 and 1927, more than any other car until the Volkswagen Beetle finally overtook it in 1972.
Q 06From 1914 to 1925, Ford sold the Model T in only which colour?
Black
Black was the only choice for those twelve years, yet the earliest Model Ts had come in red, green, grey and blue before Ford standardised the paint.
Q 07In which country did Henry Ford build Fordlândia, a jungle town meant to supply rubber for his tyres?
Brazil
Brazil's Amazon beat him: blight tore through the close-planted rubber trees and workers rioted against Ford-style rules, and the company sold the land back to the state in 1945.
Q 08Ford's moving assembly line of 1913 was inspired partly by the overhead trolleys of which Chicago industry?
Meatpacking
Meatpacking plants took carcasses apart as they moved past the butchers; Ford ran the idea in reverse to put cars together, cutting assembly of a Model T from over 12 hours to about 93 minutes.
Q 09Ford's famous January 1914 wage announcement set a minimum daily pay of how much?
$5.00
$5.00 a day more than doubled the old $2.34 minimum; thousands of job seekers lined up outside the plant in the January cold, and Ford's costly staff turnover fell away.
Q 10What did Henry Ford call the self-propelled vehicle he completed and test-drove in June 1896?
Quadricycle
Quadricycle was a light frame on four bicycle wheels that Ford put together in a shed behind his Detroit home; he sold it for $200 to pay for a second car, then bought it back for $60.
Q 11After Henry Ford left the Henry Ford Company in 1902, it was renamed and became which luxury marque?
Cadillac
Cadillac was born when Ford's former backers, about to sell off the plant, were talked into building cars after all; they named the firm after the French founder of Detroit.
Q 12Henry Ford's chartered 'Peace Ship' sailed to Europe in a failed attempt to end which war?
World War I
World War I ground on regardless: Ford fell ill and sailed home only days after the ship reached Norway in December 1915, leaving the other delegates to carry on without him.
Q 13Charcoal briquettes made from Model T wood scraps, first sold as Ford Charcoal, became which brand?
Kingsford
Q 21Which Ford brand, launched in 1957 and axed in 1959, became a byword for failure?
Edsel
Edsel reached showrooms just as a recession hit sales of medium-priced cars, and Ford pulled the plug in November 1959 after barely two years.
Q 22Ford's ill-fated 1958 mid-price brand had Teletouch push-button transmission controls mounted where?
In the steering wheel hub
In the steering wheel hub, a ring of buttons replaced the gear lever; the electric system proved unreliable and was dropped for the 1959 models.
Q 23Ford asked Marianne Moore to suggest names for its new 1958 car and got 'Utopian Turtletop'; what was her profession?
Poet
Kingsford comes from the Michigan town that grew up around Ford's sawmill and charcoal plant, itself named after E. G. Kingsford, the cousin's husband who found Ford the timberland.
Q 14In the 1937 'Battle of the Overpass', Ford security men beat which future UAW president?
Walter Reuther
Walter Reuther and fellow UAW organisers were beaten as they arrived to hand out leaflets at the plant gates on 26 May 1937; news photographs of the attack made headlines across the country.
Q 15Which vast Ford complex, finished in 1928, had its own steel mill and turned raw materials into complete cars?
River Rouge
River Rouge was Henry Ford's bid to control every step himself: he had the river dredged so freighters could unload beside the plant, and 93 buildings rose around its own railway.
Q 16Which successor did Ford unveil in December 1927 after finally ending Model T production?
Model A
Model A reused the name of the company's very first car of 1903; Ford shut the old lines in mid-1927 to retool, and crowds mobbed showrooms when the newcomer appeared that December.
Q 17What was the nickname of the Ford Trimotor, the three-engined airliner that first flew in 1926?
Tin Goose
Tin Goose airliners flew the daytime legs when Transcontinental Air Transport began crossing America in 48 hours in 1929, with passengers put on trains by night.
Q 18During World War II, which bomber did Ford mass-produce at its Willow Run plant?
B-24 Liberator
B-24 Liberator bombers were built at Willow Run on a moving line like cars rather than by hand, and at the 1944 peak a finished one rolled out about every hour.
Q 19Which luxury carmaker did Ford buy out of receivership in 1922 for $8 million?
Lincoln
Lincoln was founded in 1917 by Henry Leland, who named it after the first president he had voted for; five years later it was insolvent and Ford's was the only bid.
Q 20Which Ford brand, produced from the 1939 to 2011 model years, was named after a Roman god?
Mercury
Mercury was created to fill the price gap between everyday Fords and the company's luxury cars; after years of shrinking sales, Ford announced in 2010 that it would close the brand.
Poet Marianne Moore was approached because Ford's researchers thought nobody understood words better; her other ideas included 'Mongoose Civique' and 'Pastelogram', and none was used.
Q 24Which Ford model debuted for 1955 as a two-seater created to compete with the Chevrolet Corvette?
Thunderbird
Thunderbird outsold the Corvette many times over in 1955; Ford, which called it a 'personal car' rather than a sports car, then gave it a back seat for 1958.
Q 25The first Ford Mustang was introduced on April 17, 1964 at what event?
New York World's Fair
New York World's Fair crowds saw the car on 17 April 1964 and dealers took about 22,000 orders that day, although Plymouth's rival Barracuda had reached the market two weeks earlier.
Q 26The original Ford Mustang was built on the platform of which compact Ford?
Falcon
Falcon underpinnings kept the sporty Mustang cheap to develop and to buy, at about $2,300, and Ford built its millionth within two years of the launch.
Q 27Which Mustang champion was fired by Henry Ford II in 1978 and went on to run Chrysler?
Lee Iacocca
Lee Iacocca was sacked even though Ford made about $2 billion that year; hired by a Chrysler close to bankruptcy, he won a $1.5 billion federal rescue and returned it to record profits.
Q 28Which Ford model line was America's best-selling vehicle every year for over four decades through 2024?
F-Series
F-Series pickups have led US truck sales since 1977; for 2015 Ford switched the F-150's body from steel to aluminium, which cut about 700 pounds from the truck.
Q 29Ford's GT40 won the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, ending a six-year winning streak by which manufacturer?
Ferrari
Ferrari was the whole point: Ford built the GT40 with the single aim of beating the Italian team at Le Mans, and in 1966 its cars finished first, second and third.
Q 30What does the '40' in GT40 refer to?
Its height in inches
Its height in inches: the roof sat just 40 inches off the ground; another firm held the GT40 trademark, so the taller 2005 revival was sold as plain Ford GT.