Throughout the 100-year tradition of presidential automobiles, there have been some pretty unexpected cars that former presidents used to own . It's hard to pin down exactly when this tradition started, but the first president to ride in a car in general was William McKinley. Just before 1900, Freelan O.
Stanley, an inventor who manufactured steam-driven automobiles, invited President McKinley to take a ride in his car while in office. While it was an experience McKinley didn't particularly enjoy because the earliest cars weren't exactly made with luxurious comfort in mind, it set the stage for future presidents to form their own motorcades. Theodore Roosevelt pushed the tradition ahead when he became the first president to ride in a car publicly in 1902, cruising through the streets of Hartford in a Columbia Electric Victoria Phaeton.
This wasn't a common occurrence for him, as Roosevelt preferred horses. Nonetheless, on that day in Hartford, he was surrounded by an old school paparazzi of men on bicycles and horseback — which was essentially the first presidential motorcade. It was President William Howard Taft, an actual automobile enthusiast, who cemented the tradition with a Model M and a Pierce Arrow.
Here's the story behind the first official U.S. presidential motor cars.
Everything changed when Henry Ford introduced the revolutionary Model T in 1908. Cars became far more widely available and pretty soon, the majority of U.S.
citizens owned one — including the pres.