Automobile's 20th anniversary April '06 issue listed their "20 greatest cars that changed the game forever ".

"20 To Remember - Many great cars have come our way over the past two decades, but these twenty had the biggest impact on the automotive landscape."

Acura NSX
BMW M3
BMW M5
Corvette
Chrysler 300C
Chrylser minivans
Ferrari F40
Ferrari F430
Honda Accord
Honda Civic
Jeep Cherokee
Lexus LS400
Mazda Miata
Mini Cooper S
Mercedes-Benz 300E (W124 body)
Porsche Boxster
Nissan 300ZX Turbo
Porsche 911
VW GTI
Subaru WRX

-----------------------------------

Chrysler 300C

 

From my general American auto market point of view, I can completely agree with the selection of the Chrysler minivans, Honda Civic/Accord, and Lexus LS...those cars, particularly the first and third, I know of completely transformed my car neighborhood. When those cars came out, within a few years the auto landscape had completely changed and the cars most people drove were different as a result.

 

I agree with about half that list... But I dont see how the F430 can be one of the greatest cars of the last two decades when it JUST came out. Nothing really too special about it other than its a badass Ferrari. For that, you can add the CLS.

 

Enzo should be on there, not the F430. And what about the Ford Skyliner? That was the first hardtop convertible, or Audi with its aluminum space frame, not a single Volvo listed with all their advanced safety features (for their times)? Seriously, come on.

And I agree, 300C?

 

Isn't the Skyliner older than 20 years?

And I third this, 300C? Well I guess it did change the game a bit. It did deceive people into thinking that it's a high quality domestic.

 

300C adn F430??? what is the deal??!!!

 

hahah my thoughts exactly. i agree with most of the list, but these two just completely got me scratching my head bad. f430 is a nice car, but top 20? enzo should come before it (or they are leaving out all the exotic like the porsche gt?)

and 300c? being best 20 coz' it suddenly makes bentley affordable to everyone?

 

I read the paper copy of it last week when the April issue came out....I tried to post it but it wasn't on the webste yet.

Generally a good article. I can agree with the majority of it, but I can't see where the Acura NSX, the Ferraris, The Corvette, or the 300ZX Turbo really had that big a 20-year impact on the auto market. The 'Vette has been around in limited production since the early '50's ( and with high-performance versions since the late 50's ). It did spawn the Dodge Viper but that car has sold in even lower numbers. The NSX has had virtually no impact at all except for a couple of non-sports cars like the Jaguar XJ and Audi A8 that have copied its all-aluminum construction...the Japanese sports cars that followed it did not share its all-aluminum construction or its mid-engine layout ( except the mid-engine MR2 Turbo ). Likewise, Ferraris and their counterparts still sell in very low numbers today despite Michael Shumacher's vicrories, and the 300ZX Turbo, as nice of a sports car as it was, merely shared the rather limited market for high-performance Japanese sports cars with the Mazda RX-7 Twin Turbo, the Mitsubishi 3000 GT VR-4, The Dodge Stealth Twin-Turbo, and the Toyota Supra Turbo.......all of these, for various reasons, were completely gone from the U.S. market within just a few years.

 

I agree with Marshall... more than half that list is incorrect....

Its funny but the accords and civics make me recall the days when EVERYBODY owned one or knew someone who did....lol

 

Why the MB 300E?

 

The 300E supposedly set standards for ride, handling, construction, and safety that other automakers copied ( or tried to copy ) for years afterward. There is some truth to this, although I personally feel that the pre-Chris Bangle BMW's ( like yours ) were more agreeable cars overall....they had better steering feel and a more agility as well. However, it is difficult to downplay the quality and engineering standards that the 300E set.
In the mid-late 1980's ( the start of this 20-year period the article covers ) Mercedes, wihout question, built some of the best cars in the world, not only from a safety standpoint ( with Volvo ) but with quality and reliability as well. To own a M-B vehicle was considered a sign of success in life. The 300E was not only built like a tank but combined a supple ride with good handling....virtually unheard of at the time, even with the then yuppie-crazed BMW's. You could drive a 300E straight into a brick wall at high speed and, if belted up properly, stand a good chance of walking away...or at least surviving. However, it did trail the BMW's in steering feel....and still does today.
The 300E served as one of the world standards in quality and enginering until Lexus and Infiniti came along in the early 1990's and gave M-B its first serious Japanese competition ( Acura, for several reasons, didn't quite do it from 1986-1990 ) and forcing M-B into a downward spiral that it still has not recovered from. That story does not need repeating here.....most of you already know it very well.

 

Doh, didn't catch that part

 

i agree with the F430 and 300C, they came out way to recently to see any profound effects it had on the automotive industry

 

I agree! How can you judge the impact of any car that's been around for less than ten years? Jury's still out. With a little historical perspective, we can see dramatic changes made by famous and infamous cars. Here are a few of my nominations.

1934 - The Chrysler Airflow - the first mass production automobile to display the impact of aerodynamics in styling also set the early standard for chassis strength and rollover protection.

1957 - Chrysler Corporation - introduced "The Forward Look" across the entire fleet in a single model year, making a bold styling statement that lowered vehicle height about 8*. "Longer, lower, wider" was born an American idiom, which would dominate US design studios for the next 30 years.

1958 - the European Invasion - Volkswagen, followed by Renault, Fiat, and Volvo made their first determined entry into the US sedan market pioneered by Volkswagen a few years earlier. Until then, a "foreign" car was probably a two-seat British roadster, or perhaps a VERY rare Porsche. The Euro-sedanmakers opened the floodgates for the general public to own an economical, if rather unreliable, small car.

1960 - Chevrolet Corvair - the first re-think of the American automobile from the wheels up since the Model T. A 6 cyl, air-cooled, rear-engine drove the first of the American compact cars. While the Valiant and the Falcon were simply smaller iterations of conventional cars, the Corvair was a clean-sheet-of-paper design. Visciously attacked for quirky handling at the limit (It used swing axles like the VW), it was not as Ralph Nader claimed, "Unsafe at Any Speed". It simply allowed a generation of consumers to REACH cornering limits in a production car that were heretofore uninvestigated.

1963 - Corvette "Stingray" - although introduced some ten years earlier, the Corvette was born a pretender to sports car stardom. With a GMC truck straight-6 and a 2-speed automatic, it was a performance dog. For ten years Zora Arkus-Duntov wheedled the powers that be at GM for development money and incremental changes that brought the car out of the doldrums in the late '50's. By 1963, he'd proven his market and management turned him loose to build his dream car. Although it wouldn't be fully sorted out for a couple more years, in 1963 the 'Vette fulfilled the promise and became "America's Sports Car". It's never been duplicated by any high-volume manufacturer, and remains, in stock trim, probably the best bargain in performance-per-dollar in anything with four wheels.

1964 - Mustang - the long-hood-short-deck styling idiom that persists to this day made its debut in a mass-produced American car. Unless you were a car nut in that era, you can't imagine the impact on the market. Imagine putting the styling equivalent of an Enzo in every Ford showroom in America, and hanging a $20,000 sticker on it. Who cares if it has the engine and underpinnings of a Focus . . . just LOOK at that thing!

1964 - Pontiac GTO - this sleeper arrived cloaked in the trappings of a simple Tempest . . . . you know, the one your grandmother drove . . . except for those 389 cubes, 3 2’s and a 4-speed with Positraction that could get you a launch that would have you searching for your head on the package shelf. This, not the pony car, was the birth of American Muscle.

1974 - International Travelall - for the first time, this boxy wagon built on a pickup frame and finished (to use the term loosely) with a modern interior became the tow-vehicle of choice for America's AARP heavy-haulers. It was the first vehicle to move away from the "delivery van" and "light duty truck" and become a "Sport-Utility Vehicle". Within five or six years, Chevrolet's Suburban would easily surpass it with a better engineered and assembled package (albeit with a considerably smaller powerplant), IH, for a brief instant held center stage.

1978 - Chrysler K-cars - built on the new "K" platform that was essentially a scaled-up VW Rabbit, engineered by Peugeot, the early K-cars, the Plymouth Horizon and Dodge Omni were radical departures from automobiles of the day - a departure, which with Lee Iacocca's able management, saved Chrysler Corporation. Modestly powered and of questionable quality, they proved the viability of a FWD compact in the American market, and launched an industry. Years later Carroll Shelby would work his magic over the little Omni, producing the GLH and the GLHS - compact cars with racing engines that redefined the term "torque steer".

1986 - Ford Taurus - the first of the "jelly bean" cars that brought aerodynamics back to styling. With obvious benefits to fuel efficiency and cabin noise, though odd-looking at the time, they were embraced by the public and were the benchmark for the next twenty years of automotive design.

There were of course many product innovations over the years, the overhead valve V8, automatic transmission, hydraulic (and later, power) brakes, power steering, disc brakes, ABS, radial tires, overhead cams, multiple valves, variable valve timing, etc - but these were incremental changes that were introduced by manufacturers.

Oh yes, the Skyliner was introduced in 1957 . . .


Photo Courtesy www.vintagecars.about.com

 

Oh, okay. So it's not that it revolutionized the mid-size car class, but rather all lux cars?