[GuidoK]

So I thought it would be interesting to see which cars you guys think made an impact on society and cars in general, divided into decades.
So which car defined the decade from an automotive perspective.
This can be performance wise, stylish wise, tech wise, social wise, whatever.

So here is my list. I start with the 1910's; before that cars were pretty much very low production and most people hadn't seen one.
I'm located in europe, so my list is probably biassed towards that.

1910's: The Ford model T. Technically production started in 1909, but it got it's fame in the 1910's. Needs no introduction, the first mass produced car, impact on society was huge, personal mobilisation became a thing.



1920's: The Austin 7. A small 4 seater car that pretty much took on the role of the Ford Model T in europe. It was affordable, also in the tax system back then, and very succesful. It was also popular to be build in license in other countries. It was the first car BMW build for example.
Mass production started in 1923



1930's: Citroën Traction Avant. The first mass produced front wheel car. Besides FWD, it was a very modern car and pretty popular: it had a monocoque chassis, was pretty aerodynamic, had hydraulic brakes, rack and pinion steering and an engine with overhead valves. None of these techniques were already main stream back then where most cars now can't run without.



1940's: VW Beetle. The peoples car. Development already started in the late 30's, but production for "the people" started a few years after WW2, in the late 40's. Everyone has probably seen one, owned one or have been in one. It had a really long production run with relative small changes. It has a huge fanbase.



1950's: Citroën DS. Launched in 1955 it was ultramodern both in styling and build, and had lots of technology not seen before. It's famous for it's independant, hydropneumatically controlled suspension. Where most cars still had solid rear axles and leaf springs, this was pretty much rocketscience.
Not only its suspension was hydropneumatically controlled: steering, brakes, clutch and gearbox also ran on the hydraulic system. And of course FWD.
For it's time it was an extremely aerodynamic car build with very modern materials. Nylon dashboard, aluminium hood, polyester roof. Together with the long wheelbase it gave a very low center of gravity and a superior ride for that time. Later models also got adaptive headlights. Very much a commercial succes.



1960's: The Austin Mini. Technically it went for sale in august 1959, but it's very much associated with the 60's.
A tiny car with place for 4 adults and luggage, a space saving wonder.
Affordable, reliable and build in huge numbers for the people. Next to the VW beetle, the 'hippy' car. Also succesful in motorsports. Everyone probably has seen one, owned one or has been in one. Iconic car with a long production ru .



1970's The VW Golf (the VW Golf GTI especially). The VW Golf was developped as successor of the Beetle in the 70's and was immediately a commercial succes. Of course still in production today in it's 8th iteration and still one of the best selling cars. In the late 70's (1976) VW decided to put a 1600cc 110HP injection engine in it, and it made a new car genre very popular: the hot hatch. Affordable for the average man, a practical, reliable car with great styling and performance. Today it's still the car most related to that specific nice of cars. The letters GTI are very recognizeable.



1980's: So much to choose from. For me personally it's the Ferrari F40
. Fastest car of that decade, and maybe even purposely build to be faster than the porsche 959.
The F40 is a style icon. Of course on this forum I should have said the BMW E30 M3. One of the most succesful cars in motorsport, an iconic homologation special.
So which one? They both look gorgeous in red



1990's: For me: the McLaren F1.. Non plus ultra hypercar. All carbon. Highly tuned BMW V12, and a 3 seater with driverseat dead in the middle.
Incredibly expensive to own, but it has luggage space for golfclubs, and the engine bay is covered in gold foil. It also was very succesful in racing, which adds to the pedegree. What a gorgeous car.



2000's: Never was a decade so divided. There are 2 cars:

1. The Bugatti Veyron: a thousand horsepower!. Resurrection of an ultra expensive cars. 16 cylinders. 10 radiators. A car that made the headlines in every car magazine and carshow.


2. Toyota Prius: the complete opposite. A car that defined and maybe invented a new age: ecological sustainability. Less is more. The car that made fuel efficiency popular. Technically the mk1 was developped and sold in the 90's but only in japan. When the mk2 was introduced (2003) things got really popular. Hollywood stars wanted to be seen in this ecological car, probably more than in that Bugatti Veyron .
Technically it was very advanced. How it's gearbox was both regulated with the internal combustion engine and the electric engine, how it's internal combustion engine used an atkinson cycle in certain drive modes instead of the otto cycle. It was very popular and it also prooved for the first time that hybrid electrical drivelines could be very very reliable.
It's water droplet shape made it very aerodynamical.



2010: The Tesla Model S. The first electrical car that combined style, performance, usability. This is the car that made electrificaton cool and desireable. A new brand, marketed very well, to a new group, with support to implement charger networks etc etc. This car and brand started a whole new ecosystem for cars. Change was coming and this was the change. In a lot of countries, this became very fast the most desireable car amongst normal people. Expensive but desireable. Very good range (for an EV) and very very good performance. This car changed EV's from dull, slow, impractical, ugly, unuseable hobby bob like cars, to a very desireable car that competes with the high end sedans and coupe;s of the luxury brands. A totally new concept.
The impact on society was huge. Both loved and hated, but the start of a new era.



I'd love to see what you guys think are the cars from the decades

[Topcarbon]

Countach needs to be in this list
It started the supercar outrageousness
Its as iconic as cars come for the ‘70s

[GuidoK]

Yes I thought about that one too. A real icon of a car. Long production run too.
Probably my favorite model from my favorite brand with an engine from my favorite automotive designer ever

But tough to beat the Golf GTI.
One car per decade is very little of course.

And in the 60's there also appeared a sportscar with an air cooled engine in the back that turned into an icon
But tough to beat the mini
So many choices
I wanted 1 car per decade, and failed at that at some point

...and in the 50's another iconic sportscar with plastic body was born in the US...
mechanically pretty prehistoric compared to that DS though

[Red Bread]

A Veyron is cool and all, but I think the 2000's are really all about a JB4 335i.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by Red Bread

A Veyron is cool and all, but I think the 2000's are really all about a JB4 335i.

If we're going to consider tuner cars, something like a R35 GT-R must also make the list

[Topcarbon]

Maybe i am reading this thread wrong which would not be a first.

What defines a decade when it comes to cars? A car that breaks from everything before it. The designers tear up the previous design plans and start over.

[Red Bread]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

If we're going to consider tuner cars, something like a R35 GT-R must also make the list

Oh, sorry, I was absolutely not serious.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by Red Bread

A Veyron is cool and all, but I think the 2000's are really all about a JB4 335i.

Don't forget the fake M badges.

[wtwo3]

Originally Posted by Topcarbon

Maybe i am reading this thread wrong which would not be a first.

What defines a decade when it comes to cars? A car that breaks from everything before it. The designers tear up the previous design plans and start over.

I think the definition is yours to interpret.

[Tacoma]

Originally Posted by Topcarbon

Maybe i am reading this thread wrong which would not be a first.

What defines a decade when it comes to cars? A car that breaks from everything before it. The designers tear up the previous design plans and start over.

The OP's criteria appears to be "made an impact on society and cars in general." But his list is kind of all over the place from everyday cars like VW Beetle and Mini to supercars like Bugatti and McLaren. IMO, supercars that 99.9% of the world can't afford should not qualify for impact to society.

Also my 2 cents is the late 1980's & 1990's was when Japanese cars took off and became the automotive forefront in North America from your daily drivers such as Honda Accord/Civic and Toyota Corolla/Camry, to your more driver oriented cars like the Integra Type R and Miata. I would put one of these cars for the 1990's decade over the ultra-rare McLaren F1 in terms of societal impact.

[Humdizzle]

some that come to mind:

GTR - after this everyone started going twin turbo, awd, automatic for bench racer times. i bought into it at the time too. then i drove a viper and brz and realized what i was missing.

E46 M3 - 996 performance in a more usable package and way less money.

Integra Type R, Prelude, celica gts, eclipse GSX... the sport compact scene was amazing in the 90s. high revving vtec/vvti motors. 4g63 that was taking mustangs off the line and coining the term 'crankwalk'.

[stein_325i]

1990's - Lexus LS

Set the stage for Japanese Luxury, proving that you could have a product as good as the best from Germany while spending a fraction of the price.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by Tacoma

The OP's criteria appears to be "made an impact on society and cars in general." But his list is kind of all over the place from everyday cars like VW Beetle and Mini to supercars like Bugatti and McLaren. IMO, supercars that 99.9% of the world can't afford should not qualify for impact to society.

That's because its:

Originally Posted by GuidoK

So here is my list.

And what criteria I used?

This can be performance wise, stylish wise, tech wise, social wise, whatever.

If the criteria would have been "best sold car" or "fastest car" etc., it would have ben a google list, and I think that's not that interesting.
But why don't you entertain us by making your own list instead of critiquing another list?
These lists are highly personal, that's what's fun about it.

to your more driver oriented cars like the Integra Type R and Miata. I would put one of these cars for the 1990's decade over the ultra-rare McLaren F1 in terms of societal impact.

Do you think that the average person knows what an Integra Type R is?
I'll ask my sister.... Nope.
But again, my list is not about the socially most recognizeable car per sé.
I think it's about setting the bar, but not in 1 specific way or area.
Maybe about setting the bar in where it's setting the bar

I'd like to see your list
Remember: 1 car per decade
And yes that's very difficult, I even failed at that for 2 decades

Originally Posted by stein_325i

1990's - Lexus LS

Set the stage for Japanese Luxury,

Yes that's a good one too. Luxury cars were mostly associated with german cars, and Lexus took a piece of that pie as Japanese brand, certainly back then. I wonder if Lexus still is a real alternative for the higher class Mercedes, BMW or Audi now ~30 years later.
Have they been able to keep that image that they created with the LS in the early 90's ?
To me it feels a bit like they lost that marketing momentum that they got in the 90's.
But is it 'the' car of the 90's?

What is your list?

[///d]

I'd have to agree that something like the Honda Civic belongs to the 90's decade. Compact cars and hot hatches all blew up in the 90s blending fuel economy while staying "sporty". We saw a huge move from gas guzzling 6 and 8 cyl engines to the 4cyl.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by ///d

Compact cars and hot hatches all blew up in the 90s blending fuel economy while staying "sporty". We saw a huge move from gas guzzling 6 and 8 cyl engines to the 4cyl.

That is, of course, an american perspective.

Here in europe 6 and 8 cyl engines always were a minority, and it was the (early) 80's that saw the first battle of the hot hatches
Kadett GSI, Escort xr3i, the lovely 205 GTI, the Renault 5 GT turbo etc etc etc.
There were loads of them! (With the mk1 Golf GTI probably the most popular one, thats why I had to include that one)
I don't know for sure but I think Simca made the first 'hot hatch' in the early 70's (1100TI).
I always loved Simca's back then. They made such cool little sporty cars back then. (and some nice coupe's too)


I see a lot of comments, but what I don't see are any lists!
What's up with that?
Surely not too much to ask on a car forum!

[psuibmw]

This car should definitely be on the list

[Bc2005]

It’s interesting that American performance cars from the 70’s are not on the list. The Mustang in ‘64 set the stage for the pony car market (which is still popular) and the GTO started the sporty muscle car movement that was picked up by the Roadrunner, Chevelle, etc.

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by Bc2005

It’s interesting that American performance cars from the 70’s are not on the list.

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I'm located in europe, so my list is probably biassed towards that.

I'd love to see your list

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by psuibmw

This car should definitely be on the list

Then make a list!

[Topcarbon]

Where is the Prius?
Talk about a first that sparked a revolution on a mass scale

[GuidoK]

Originally Posted by Topcarbon

Where is the Prius?

2000's: Never was a decade so divided. There are 2 cars:

2. Toyota Prius: the complete opposite. A car that defined and maybe invented a new age: ecological sustainability. Less is more. The car that made fuel efficiency popular. Technically the mk1 was developped and sold in the 90's but only in japan. When the mk2 was introduced (2003) things got really popular. Hollywood stars wanted to be seen in this ecological car, probably more than in that Bugatti Veyron .
Technically it was very advanced. How it's gearbox was both regulated with the internal combustion engine and the electric engine, how it's internal combustion engine used an atkinson cycle in certain drive modes instead of the otto cycle. It was very popular and it also prooved for the first time that hybrid electrical drivelines could be very very reliable.
It's water droplet shape made it very aerodynamical.

It made my list

Does it make your list?

[BMWCCA1]

'60s or '70s (take your pick):
BMW 1600/2002. The car that created and defined "sport sedan" for generations.
And still does, for some.