Detroit Automobile Company Delivery Truck outside Factory, 1899-1900

If the name Detroit Automobile Company does not sound familiar it is because the company lasted no more than eighteen months. It was Henry Ford's first effort at building a motor vehicle and it was not successful. Here the company's first product, a delivery truck, parked in front of the factory on Cass Avenue in Detroit. Despite a glowing description in the Detroit News-Tribune, the truck was apparently not a very good vehicle and the Detroit Automobile Company went out of business in January 1901. It would take two more companies and three more years before Henry Ford would become a successful automobile manufacturer.