Before this engine's introduction, almost all mass-produced cars affordable to the "average mass-market consumer" (which was a concept that Ford helped invent) used inline-four and inline-six cylinder engines. Since French engineer Léon Levavasseur's invention of the V8 engine in 1902, multi-cylinder V-engines (V8s, V12s, and even V16s) were produced, but were used in luxury models and their production runs were thus limited (relative to downmarket production volumes). For example, the first Cadillac V8 engine was in that category. When Ford Motor Company assumed operations of Lincoln in 1922, they were already producing a flathead engine with Fork and Blade connecting rods which remained in production after Ford took over until 1932.