Discussing car design is difficult. How do you define the most influential car? You’re trying to rank art, which is kind of topic that get you disinvited from future dinner parties at your snobby coworker’s loft. Still, Andy asked you to try last week, and today we’re parsing through your responses. Some of you have very interesting ideas of influence.
Come on folks. We all know the answer. PONTIAC MOTHERFUCKING AZTEK:
I can name 20 current models that look almost exactly like this thing that people have shat on for over 20 years.
The Pontiac Aztek may not have been respected in the short term, but it won the last laugh of automotive design. Think about every modern crossover coupe — every X6 or Cayenne Coupe - and gaze upon their forefather.
The 911. It’s the benchmark for sportscars and supercars even today.
The 911 is certainly a performance benchmark, but in a purely design aspect is it really that influential? Do any other cars on the road today really look like a 911?
The original Mini Cooper pioneered the space-conscious transverse FWD layout that would become ubiquitous on passenger cars in the following decades.
The Mini was an influential design from an engineering perspective, demonstrating the practicality and cost savings of a transverse engine configuration. That, I’d say, is pretty damn influential.
I think the distinction “influential” is important. While a 911 is certainly an iconic design, it didn’t affect the car industry outside of Porsche one iota.
I’d go with either the XJ:
Which I don’t even like, but I’d argue that the SUV craze exists almost entirely because of it, or the first-gen Ford Taurus:
It wasn’t the first midsize FWD sedan, but it was the one that legitimized the segment and created the template of rounded with maximized interior space. I think you can still see the influence in midsize sedans today.
The XJ Cherokee certainly influenced me to put a Jeeplopnik sticker on my desk in the office. If that’s not influence, I don’t know what is.
It’s the DS, and it’s not even close. Technologically, it was ahead of its time by multiple decades, but it also moved car design beyond post-war austerity and showed to the rest of the world that you can design simple cars that are well-proportioned and don’t have acres of chrome and nonsense hanging off of them. One could say car design has still not caught up with it.
It’s even more remarkable when you consider that it was being sold at the same time as this car:
If there’s one word that comes to mind for me, when I think of the Citroën DS, it’s simple. That right there is a simple vehicle, unburdened by bloated luxury features. Do not look at the suspension behind the curtain.
Lamborghini Miura... creating the very definition of supercar that many still hold as gospel. Mid-engine, V12, RWD, etc...
Every modern supercar wishes it could look half as good as a Miura. The problem, the key design feature they’re missing, is the eyelashes. More cars need to be a little dainty with it.
The Studebaker Avanti:
People like to give the “pony car” crown to the Mustang—the long hood and the short trunk—as the originator. Nope, the Avanti came out first. It set the stage for the pony car.
And given how the late Fifties/early Sixties was a time of wildly weird styling (some of which is quite good), the Avanti showed that going for the clean look was the future. So good, the design is timeless. Check out the star car in Gattaca.
The Avanti is gorgeous in a sort of one-cuil-off way, where it looks fantastic until you start focusing on the details and realize everything is wrong in inexplicable ways. I wish that had been more influential, actually. Give us more weird cars.
Can’t get more influencial than this
The 1916 Type 53 was the first car to use the same control layout as modern automobiles- with the gear lever and hand brake in the middle of the front two seats, a key started ignition, and three pedals for the clutch, brake and throttle in the modern order.
Here we’re talking design within the field of engineering again, and I’d have to say that this is a solidly influential choice. I, for one am glad that Cadillac pioneered the three-pedal setup. Can you imagine if we’d settled on a hand throttle like a plane? Wait, actually, that might rule.
The Ford Model T Runabout. Clearly taking inspiration from things like Red River carts, and Adams Carts, Ford made the first, mass-produced pickup truck. Today, the F150 is regularly the best selling vehicle in North America.
From here:
To here:
The pickup truck is an American institution, and always has been. Sure, we think of massive hulking monsters built from compensating insecurity now, but look back at Norman Rockwell’s America and you’ll see them there too. This is where they all started.
THe 1994 Toyota Rav4 as the first successful crossover SUV, which is now the most popular body type. Sure, there were Jeeps and Broncos and AMC Eagles before (I’d argue even the 1977 Lada Niva was still mostly car), but the Rav4 was the start of the not-a-car/not-a-truck crossover.
Unlike those earlier SUVs, the Rav4 was a truly modern crossover — built on a car (or at least car-ish) platform. Unfortunately, the two-door look didn’t stick around.
AMC Eagle
Take a sedan, jack it up on stilts, call it something else. This is functionally just an early prototype of the Polestar 2. It’s even done up in a similarly muted shade.
Chrysler 300C.
RWD V-8 engine near-production concept was unveiled at the 2003 New York Auto Show. Designer Ralph Gilles overheard folks from the other Big 3 whispering, “No way they’re gonna build that.” They did and it was called one of the most signifigant designs of the then new 21st century. Old white women, young black guys and everyone in between loved it.
Chrysler Minivan.
Called a segment buster responsible for a shift from station wagons and the introduction of minivans from virtually every other mainstream auto maker. Also helped save Chrysler’s bacon in the ‘80s.
Man, remember the early 2000s, when every automaker built a massive, heavy, rear-driven sedan based on the 300's influence? Remember that? That thing that happened?
1961 Lincoln Continental. All the excesses of 1950's automotive design were instantly rendered obsolete, and it set an entirely new direction for automotive styling for the 1960's.
The Continental is the boxiest car to ever deserve the adjective sleek. It’s got presence and stature, but it’s also clearly something cool.
Jaguar E-Typethe whole idea of a low slung sports coupe or convertible“A great example of this — to me — is the . It sort of set in motion with a long nose and a short rear behind the two drivers’ seats.”
Err - have you never seen a Bugatti Type 35? Or a Pre war Riley? Alfa Romeo 6C? low-slung, long bonnet, 2 seats and minimal bodywork was the de facto standard for any “sporty” car from the 1920s.... The E-Type just pushed the envelope.
As for “most influential”... I’d put forward the Bugatti Type 32 “Tank”. One of the first cars with fully-enclosing bodywork. I’m not going to attempt to add a photo for obvious reasons, but here’s a link
It’s funny to see this described as the onset of “fully-enclosing bodywork,” given how many holes are dotted all around this blue body. Enclosed, maybe, but certainly not waterproof.
The Toyota Corolla seems like the easy and obvious answer. Toyota has been teaching the world how to build cheap, efficient, reliable compact cars, using for decades, basically every car company has attempted to copy the Corolla formula to varying levels of success. Basically every car company have attempted to copy ‘the Toyota Way’ manufacturing methods, often just interpreted as just in time manufacturing though in reality it’s more complex than that, again to varying levels of success. The Corolla on it’s own is the best selling car of all time, with more than double the sales of the next best VW Beetle.
Cheap, efficient, reliable, and practical. Put those four together, and you’ve got a recipe for success in the automotive world. It’s tough to argue that anyone’s done it better than Toyota — save maybe the Honda Super Cub.