Model T and Model A Values: From Showroom Price to Today's Market

There is no continuous price series for either car. What exists are list prices from Ford, a few broad market figures and a scattering of auction results. That is enough to sketch the curve, as long as you read each number for what it is: a single sale, an asking price or an average across hundreds of cars. The people who know the real numbers best are the owners, and the clubs are where owners meet and trade them.

What they cost new: $850 down to $260, then $385

The Model T started high and got cheaper. A 1908 Touring cost $850. The Runabout fell from $825 in 1909 to $260 in 1925, the lowest price of the run, before rising again to $360 for 1926 and 1927. Ford built more than 15 million of them on that formula, and the low price is the reason the survivor pool is large today.

The Model A arrived at a slightly higher level. The 1928 factory list ran from $385 for the Roadster to $570 for the Fordor, f.o.b. Detroit, according to the Model A Ford Club of America. A MAFCA chapter flyer puts the Tudor at $495 to $525 across the run and names the Town Car as the most expensive Model A at $1,200. The Henry Ford's record for its 1930 Phaeton gives $645, a figure that may include extras, so treat it as a ceiling rather than a base price.

Why the cheap cars stayed cheap

Collector prices follow supply, and supply is the Model A's problem as an investment and its strength as a hobby car. Ford built about 4.85 million of them for the 1928 to 1931 model years, and MAFCA material and later press both cite estimates of around 250,000 Model As still in existence, complete or in pieces. For the Model T there is no census at all. In 2008 the president of the Model T Ford Club of America said nobody knew how many survive, with estimates running from about 50,000 to 150,000.

Either way, the pool is deep. A buyer who wants a Model A Tudor can choose among many, and that keeps any single car from running away on price. Parts are reproduced, the clubs publish judging and restoration standards, and the knowledge base is wide. All of that holds values down at the entry level and makes the cars easy to own.

The other snapshot comes from a MAFCA chapter flyer that appears to date from about 2008. It put a running driver at $6,000 to $10,000 and a show car at $25,000 to $40,000. The date is inferred from the flyer's reference to a 2007 show, so read it as an approximate marker, not a precise benchmark.

Model A values today: drivers, trucks and the odd survivor

The useful recent data points sit mostly in the commercial line, where auction houses have sold enough cars to show a pattern. A 1928 open cab pickup brought $20,160 at RM Sotheby's sale of the Guyton Collection in St. Louis in May 2019. A 1931 Panel Delivery, a car that appeared in Boardwalk Empire, sold for $26,400 at RM Sotheby's Hershey in 2021, and a 1931 DeLuxe Sedan Delivery made $25,850 at the same sale in 2019. At the other end, that 1929 roadster pickup at $9,350 shows how much a driver-grade truck can trail a well-presented one.

Body style moves the number. Sports Car Market's view is that an open cab pickup is worth slightly more than a closed cab for 1928 and 1929, and markedly more for 1930 and 1931. That tracks production: every Model A pickup built through August 1928 had an open cab, but by 1930 the closed cab was standard and the open cab had become an extra-cost option, so the later ones are scarcer.

Unrestored cars are their own category. In August 2026 a 1929 Model A Business Coupe that had spent about 60 years in storage in Black Creek, Wisconsin, was listed on Facebook Marketplace at $10,000. That is an asking price for a solid but unrestored car, not a sale. The gap between that figure and a finished car is labor and parts, and the hobby that learned to close that gap is covered here. For a current read on what sellers want across body styles, the live listings of Model A asking prices are a better guide than any single auction.

Model T values: a wide spread around a modest average

The broadest Model T figure is an average. As of April 2025, Classic.com tracked almost 300 Model T sales averaging just under $17,000. That average hides a long tail. At the top sits a 1908 Touring, serial no. 2, which sold at Bonhams Amelia Island on March 3, 2022, for $246,400 including premium. It is the one top-end Model T result confirmed by the auction house itself, and the story of the top Model T sales is mostly the story of early serial numbers and documented history.

Specialty bodies sit between the average and the top. A 1912 Delivery Car, one of 1,825 built in 1912 and 1913, sold for $52,800 at RM Sotheby's Hershey in 2012. A 1925 Model T Snow Flyer coupe, fitted with the snowmobile conversion, brought $30,250 at the same sale. Both are oddities with low production, which is exactly why they cleared the average by so much.

"The average Model T trades for about what a used compact car costs. The cars that bring five or six figures are not better Model Ts. They are rarer ones, with paperwork that proves it."

David Mercer

What moves the price, and what doesn't

Three things drive these numbers, and age is not one of them. Every Model T is old. What separates a $9,000 car from a $26,000 one is rarity of the body style, condition and documentation. A common closed car in driver condition sits at the bottom of the market. An open car, a commercial body or an early serial number with a paper trail sits at the top.

My read on the market is simple. These are not investment cars at the entry level, and they were never meant to be. They were built to be cheap, and the survivors are still cheap enough that most buyers can drive one without worrying about the value. That is the real return. The upside lives in a thin slice of early, rare or well-documented cars, and buyers chasing it should pay for the documentation first and the paint second.

Sources and notes

• Model A Ford Club of America: Model A prices when new
• MAFCA George Washington Chapter: The Model A Ford 1928-1931 (flyer)
• Sports Car Market: Model A pickups, open cab and closed cab values (September 2017)
• RM Sotheby's: 1928 Ford Model AR open cab pickup, The Guyton Collection, lot 388
• RM Sotheby's: 1912 Ford Model T Delivery Car, Hershey 2012