Model Ts came with a toolkit and instruction book so that owners could do many of their own repairs. The Model T Ford Club of America has an impressively detailed history of the toolkit here. They also have a copy of an instruction book that came with a 1911 Model T (here), and note, "That the new owner would be expected to make the repairs outlined in these instruction books seems surprising in these modern times."

John Steinbeck famously said, "Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than about the clitoris, about the planetary system of gears than the solar system of stars."

The earliest commercially produced cars were the playthings of the mechanically-minded "elite" - these "horseless carriages" were skittish, unreliable, and not particularly practical, and only those with the free time, mechanical inclination and budget would consider buying one. However, over the course of the first decade of the 20th century, affordable, practical (relatively speaking, of course) autos like the Curved Dash Oldsmobile, Ford's N, R, and S models (the predecessors to the model T) and other economy cars from marques like Brush and Maxwell opened the world of motoring to the a much wider base; the introduction of the model T in 1908 made the automobile a practical and realistic choice for Americans of all walks of life. As word_nerd_mcgoo pointed out, the Model T came with a toolkit (well, it was an accessory actually, but a popular one) and there was an enormous wealth of literature for the car, like Victor Page's bestselling guide.