Re: Which Year
The "best"? 1928 with its many, many forged parts that later were cheapened to stamped. Ford bean counters did some post-production figures on the cost of each Model A produced and discovered FoMoCo was losing $129 on each Phaeton it sold to dealers. Ford lost money on almost all body styles in 1928. From 1928 on, the parts were cheapened to save a buck. Some designs didn't work out as planned, such as the multi-disc clutch, so when a mechanical change was needed, Ford made it, but almost always with a cheaper replacement, i.e., single disk clutch and flywheel, electric windshield wipers replaced by 50 cent vacuum wipers (I made that figure up), stamped chassis parts instead of forged, and so on and so on. The '28 Model A had its design shortcomings, for sure; but for quality of the parts that went into it, I vote for the 1928 as being the "best". Later years looked better, but were loaded with cheaper parts.
Marshall
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