A One Man Show

Before the assembly line was used in the automotive industry, one person or a small group of people built a car until it was finished; then they moved on to the next car. For one car to be built, it would take a professional or a group of professionals more than 12 hours. This made it more expensive to buy a car or even to see a car. The reason it was more expensive is because it took more manual labor, and it was much more difficult to build the cars.

The cost for one car was so high, that only the wealthy could afford cars. A car could cost more than $1,000 before the assembly line. In today's money that would be equal to $36,600. There was a long wait time to get a car, which created a huge gap between the time actually buying the car and the time you received it. Before the assembly line, if you owned a car you were considered wealthy. Unlike today, you couldn't make monthly payments to buy cars, another reason why only wealthy people owned cars.