What's The Most Significant Car In History?

The 20th and 21st centuries were, and are, shaped by the automobile.

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President John F Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie Connally ride together in a convertible limousine in Dallas. Several stops later President Kennedy and Governor Connally were shot in the limousine.
President John F Kennedy, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nellie Connally ride together in a convertible limousine in Dallas. Several stops later President Kennedy and Governor Connally were shot in the limousine.
Image: Getty (Getty Images)

History is amazing, and cars have played an incredible role throughout the 20th and 21st Century. So, what I want to know is, what car do you think contributed the most to history?

I had this thought while I was strolling through the Henry Ford Museum (as I’m wont to do) last week with my four-year-old niece. She had no appreciation for the sight of president John F. Kennedy’s Lincoln limousine, being all of four and more interested in the giant steam engines nearby. Now that is a consequential piece of automotive history, but there’s so many more.

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Perhaps the car Grand Duke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in changed the world in a larger way than Kennedy’s Lincoln. Or perhaps it was the Parisian taxis driving young French soldiers to the front in World War I. Maybe it’s every single bit mobility and reliability the Jeep Willys provided for U.S. troops in World War II.

Whatever it is, tell us about it below.