The 12 Most Important Cars

Sections: Awards | Best of the Web Jan 22nd, 2008 11 Comments

Time magazine has recently published a great article on the greatest, most important cars of the last 100 years.

Along with the ’55 Chevy, Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic and VW Beetle lies the BMC Mini.

First car in the world to lie the engine across the vehicle rather than longitudinally. Revolutionary design proved that cars could get smaller -and still be hot. Its technical layout was copied by everybody and is still basically used in today’s small cars. Ten feet long with 10 inch wheels, it handled like a dream.

If you have a few minutes to spare, go through the whole list. It’s a great read. You might also consider checking out the 50 worst cars list. It’s quite amusing.

[ The Dozen Most Important Cars of All Time ] Time.com

Written By: DB

nuvolari

Wow, that was probably the most boring list of “most signficant” cars I’ve ever read through. It would be very drpressing if those in fact were the 12 most important cars of the century.
Z4MINI

It astounds me that these lists lists ineveitably leave out the WW2 Willy’s Jeep, a car that arguably not only saved the world but was the true inspiration of every military car and off-road vehicle since.

Glad to see the Mini on the list.
Revhed

Seems to me to be more US-focused than truely global – e.g. It’s highly debatable that the Voyager was the first of it’s breed – There was the Nissan Prairie from 1981 and others before that.
Jimbo

Absolute nonsense. I agree with maybe 3 or 4 of them. Then again, it is Time magazine, made for the same people that read consumer reports…blah…
OH Steve

That list doesn’t make any sense. “Chevrolet”? That’s not a car it’s a brand and nobody want’s anything to do with 95% of what they’ve pumped out in the last hundred years. “SUVs”? That is a category. Why not just say subcompacts as well and not list the Corolla, Civic, and Mini separately. And Toyota Corolla???
c4

Actually the new Chevy Malibu is giving the new Accord and Camry a hard time in comparison tests. My sister purchased recently a brand new ’08 Chevy Impala LS and for $18K and change she has gotten a fairly solid and well built family sedan. The car came with XM satellite as standard (Hear that BMW?), Onstar and even the 3.5L V6 is a Flexfuel E85 engine.

I find it ironic that the bitter person that wrote this article decided to omit the 2001-2008 New MINI.
c4

The 1984 Chrysler Minivans were the first vehicles in their segment with FWD powertrains. They were based off the ancient 1981 K-Platform that formed the basis for the ultra popular (Back then) Dodge Aries sedan.

Any “Minivans” during that time period were mostly Japanese made boxes with steering in front of the wheels (A la bus) and RWD with very narrow bodies. At the time Detroit only made full size RWD work and conversion vans with V8 engines. GM’s first attempt at the “Minivan” was the 1985 Chevy Astro which was RWD and Ford’s 1986 Aerostar that was based off the Ford Ranger/Bronco II truck platform, also RWD. Not until the 1990′s GM and Ford would produce semi-competitive FWD Minivan offerings comparable to the Chrysler offerings.

You could say that the first van ever was the VW Microbus, but that was RWD and had an aircooled engine mounted in the rear.
http://www.mininyc.com James

I won’t get into the debate of the 12 Best… I will just say it is ridiculous at best.

What I WILL say is that the 50 Worst cars article is immensely amusing and a good read – thanks for the link!
OH Steve

Actually the new Chevy Malibu is giving the new Accord and Camry a hard time in comparison tests.

It’s possible that one day Chevy might put up a contender but the damage has been done and the only buyers will be Avis and Hertz.

The car came with XM satellite as standard (Hear that BMW?), Onstar and even the 3.5L V6 is a Flexfuel E85 engine.

If BMW was in Chevy’s position they’d give away the farm for a sale too (but I think they’re smarter than e85).
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