Used Car For Sale: Only Four Owners

Which isn't bad, considering the car was built in 1903. Actually, the car sold today at auction to a collector. The oldest Ford automobile in existence. One of the first three model A Fords to ever be sold (the other two are long gone now).

Following a flurry of bidding at a Phoenix resort, well-known Houston lawyer John O'Quinn took home the brick-red, black-upholstered car that was one of the first three sold by newly incorporated Ford Motor Co.

Pre-auction estimates had pegged the sale price at between $400,000 and $800,000.

"History, history, history," O'Quinn told Reuters, when asked why he bought the vehicle. "There are a lot of great cars in the world, but Ford is the basic car of America."

The rare vehicle has had only four owners since it rolled out of the shop on Mack Avenue in Detroit along with two other cars.

It was originally sold to butter-maker Herbert McNary of Britt, Iowa, who plunked down a $170 deposit on the $880 vehicle. It was last owned by an undisclosed individual who bought it in 2001.

For however long the link lasts, here is the auctioneer's webpage about the car.