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
nuvolari Jan 22nd, 2008 Link
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.
Reply
Z4MINI Jan 22nd, 2008 Link
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.
Reply
Revhed Jan 22nd, 2008 Link
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.
Reply
Jimbo Jan 22nd, 2008 Link
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…
Reply
OH Steve Jan 22nd, 2008 Link
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???
Reply
c4 Jan 23rd, 2008 Link
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.
Reply
c4 Jan 23rd, 2008 Link
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.
Reply
James Jan 23rd, 2008 Link
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!
Reply
OH Steve Jan 23rd, 2008 Link
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).
Reply[...] it being a slow news week, we were able to dig up some great things! There was the 12 most important cars (eventhough the 50 worst was a better list), that silly fake MINI, information regarding a possible [...]
conversionvansforsale Oct 15th, 2009 Link
Van leasing also allows for the individual to give up a van after it has been driven for a couple of years. At that time, the individual may consider the van to be outdated or they may simply not want to stay with a van that has been run down with regular use. Once the leasing period is up, the individual can simply return the van to the leasing company and enter into a new lease for a new van.
Reply
HTML Formatting Tips
MotoringFile also allows use of Markdown formatting in the comment section. This accomplishes the same formatting as HTML but is typically easy to use.
| _your text_ | → | your text |
| **your text** | → | your text |
| `my code` | → | my code |
| * Bulleted list * Second item | → | • Bulleted list • Second item |
| 1. Numbered list 1. Second item | → | 1. Numbered list 2. Second item |
| [link name](URL) | → | link name |
| *** | → | Horizontal ruler |
| <http://url> <email@add.com> | → | Auto-linked |
|  | → | Image |
Copyright © 2002-2010 Gabriel Bridger
