20 cars that changed the world

They missed the ID/DS. First production car with disk brakes in 1955.

How could they not include the Model T?

rays427 said:

How could they not include the Model T?

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I guess the brits figure the car was nothing ground breaking - it was Ford's assembly line that was the marvel.

I missed the "h" in this word on first reading and was a little startled.

No matter where it goes, the Defender feels at home. On a farm, in the jungle, or outside a country pile with murdered pheasants in the back. It is - or rather, was - as advanced as a wellington boot, which is exactly what you'd wear while driving it.

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The Model S absolutely deserves to be on that list. That being said, I'm a absolutely gobsmacked that Top Gear editors included it on their list. Maybe they're thumbing their noses at the departed Clarkson & gang.

That list is somewhat biased towards British cars, but I am pleased that the Model S was recognized.

Personally I would have put the Roadster or even the EV1 on there before the Model S. These cars started the whole EV revolution.

Dutchie said:

Personally I would have put the Roadster or even the EV1 on there before the Model S. These cars started the whole EV revolution.

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or the t-zero

so far I don't think we have seen how the model S has changed the car industry/world

the success of roadster is what got the leaf, volt, i8 ect built, it will be very interesting to see what cars get built because of the model S

StephenM said:

The Model S absolutely deserves to be on that list. That being said, I'm a absolutely gobsmacked that Top Gear editors included it on their list. Maybe they're thumbing their noses at the departed Clarkson & gang.

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Agreed! We don't know how much division there was between Clarkson and the people behind the scenes at Topgear on the topic of EVs.

1208 said:

Agreed! We don't know how much division there was between Clarkson and the people behind the scenes at Topgear on the topic of EVs.

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AFAIK the Top Gear live shows were sponsored by Shell

so Clarkson was always going to be anti BEV, and their love of fool cells was a total joke

If we do not take this seriously it can be entertaining. Were it to be serious the Model T, Citroën Traction Avant, and a few others would be on this list. For that matter the Audi Le Mans winner was not really the great innovation but common rail was so the Alfa Romeo 156 2.4 JTD would be on this list, if not the even earlier Denso-supplied Hino Rising Ranger.

However, Top Gear is orientated (UK spelling) entirely to bizarre and entertaining absurdities with the odd bit of content snuck in just to be perverse. Thus, their list does well. If they were serious about British the Mini works as does the Defender but what about the Rover 2000?

I do have my personal list drawn from my own past ownership: Honda S600, NSU Ro80, Mazda R100, Rover 2000TC, Maserati Biturbo and finally Tesla P85D. Oddly the only one of my list of "greats" that actually worked well is the Tesla. So, my question is this: for all of us who are professional early adopters of the exotic, how can we explain the tesla when this one actually works?

Here is the link for the topgear site. http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/20-cars-that-changed-the-world-2015-04-01