100 years ago . . .

In an era in which we indulge ourselves with cars equipped with MP3 sound systems and satellite navigation, it's hard to imagine a time when something as simple as a roof wasn't standard equipment.

Yet that was precisely the case when the first Model Ts went on sale 100 years ago this fall.

They were priced at $850. Customers had a choice of red, dark green or gray. Shelter from the elements -- a top -- cost $60 extra.

Production of the Model T began Oct. 1, 1908, in a three-story plant along Detroit's Piquette Avenue. It was the first car to be mass produced, a process that would put America on wheels and forever change the way we live.