We can all agree that the first car to be truly relevant to the Average Man was the Model T, created to provide mechanised personal mobility to the masses, the very definition of a growth market. The Model T was definitely the right car for the time and could be ordered in a great number of different configurations,
It’s important to note, too, that the modern road network was in its infancy when the first of the Model T’s rolled from the Piquette Avenue production line. Just as well, then, that the car could cope with farm tracks, packed gravel lanes and pretty much any surface the early motorist would be likely to encounter.
So, what happened?


Generally, the road networks have developed in parallel with the car. By the 1960s North America was criss-crossed with a matrix of gleaming highways, many of which were brand new and as smooth as the materials and methods of the day would allow. And it was those highways that the cars of the time were designed to use. Wheels became smaller, ride heights became lower, the ability to deal with rutted paths became a far lower priority.
This hand in hand development between Car and Concrete has continued. The cars of today are more highway-biased than ever before; low-profile tyres have become the norm and large-diameter alloy wheels are a must-check box even when ordering relatively “entry level” cars.
It gets crazier when you look at the near-mandatory fitment of 22″ alloy wheels with 30-profile tyres to any SUV you care to mention, thus totally depriving a car with off-road capability of the ability to cope with even moderately corrugated roads. Even the most stereotypically generic cars on the market, the Camrys and Focuses of this world, are popularly ordered with colossal, eye-pleasing wheels with track-ready tyres, optimised for maximum performance on glassy smooth pavement.

Now look at the roads. The infrastructure is enormous with an unimaginable number of routes between point A and point B to choose from. The problem is, with that many square miles of bitumen, nobody can afford to maintain them.
Our roads are scarred by cracks and potholes with the non-arterial routes being most badly affected. Last year I must have met three dozen people who have encountered a pothole which has caused their low-profile tyre sidewall to bulge and their stylish alloy wheel to buckle or crack.

So, over the last hundred or so years, we’ve gone from the average car being able to deal with any half-sensible surface your route might present, to the average car not actually being able to properly deal with the highways that should be its home without constant risk of a crippling injury.
With no sign of car companies reverting exclusively to sensible wheel and tyre combinations I’m pretty sure a design and fashion shark is being jumped somewhere.
If we take the Model T as being a car designed to suit most of the people, most of the time, what car would you say genuinely does the same thing today? We can answer this from a global or a personal standpoint. My local roads are varied in the extreme, there are fast, smooth sections and lengths of tarmac that feels like they’ve been ploughed. My own cars feel like they’re being torn apart during some journeys, but glide in serenity during some others.
I never need to go properly off-highway, but I often encounter non-adopted roads with poor surfaces. Potholes, though, are a constant hazard. I need a car capable of carrying stuff and folk. I want driving to be enjoyable, having as I do a healthy appreciation of speed. Looking at those deliverables, I’d be a pretty strong candidate for ownership of an Audi Allroad, preferably with the most sensible wheel package and the most powerful engine.

Hmm, a practical yet non-specialist vehicle capable of providing mobility even on dubious surfaces. Sounds rather like the Model T. Even in terms of price- in 1908 not everybody could afford a Model T, today not everybody can afford an Audi.
It may not be what I want, but it would appear that the Audi Allroad is what I need. It has become my Definition Of Car. Or would if I could afford it. Assuming I’m not too far from the average Joe, and putting the cost argument aside, could it be that the Allroad, or vehicles of that type, might actually be the closest there is out there to a continuation of the Model T concept?
Is the Soft Roader, genuinely, if we’re honest, the One True Car?
(First image from theoldmotor.com, all others the result of Googling “1950’s highway, cracked rim, pothole and Audi Allroad.)