[originaltext] When cars first started appearing on the streets of the world

When cars first started appearing on the streets of the world, few people took them seriously. They were toys--playthings for grown men who didn’t have much to do. No one thought that the automobile would become the world’s most popular means of transportation.
    When Henry Ford started selling his Model T in 1908, he changed all that. Ford believed that a car should be low-cost transportation that everyone could afford. So he decided to make such a car. First, he wanted a dependable automobile that wouldn’t break down easily. Then he wanted a simple engine that almost anyone could fix.
    Ford wanted to sell the car at a low price, so he had to make it at a low cost. Thus he made only one model and designed one color--black.
    In 1932, the Duesenberg brothers produced a car that many people think it was the most luxurious automobile ever made--the Duesenberg SJ. Every Duesenberg car was custom-made, so each one was different. But it usually weighed about 7,000 pounds and had a very wide wheelbase--150 inches. It also had a 400 horsepower engine that could drive the huge car from zero to 100 miles per hour in 17 seconds.
    The inside was very luxurious, too. It had the best silk, leather, silver and wood. A Dusenberg car was definitely expensive but rich people often felt that they had to own one. Unfortunately, the car cost so much to produce that the company lost money. In 1937, after making only 500 of them, the Duesenbergs stopped producing this kind of cars forever.