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Car Icons: 10 enduring automotive nameplates
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In a world where every middling lip-synced award show performance is declared to be "iconic," it's fair to say that the word has lost much of its meaning. When it comes to cars, finding an icon amid the glut of focus-group and committee-designed transport pods isn't easy. The alchemy of form, function and emotional connections that converge to make an enduring nameplate is not easily harnessed.
Still, legends exist.
Here are 10 of the longest-enduring nameplates in the business. Like all lists, this one isn't comprehensive. Not all the cars here have been in production every year since their inception, but you can buy a current example of each today. And there's a reason they've lasted this long.
We've ranked them using a complex formula that encompasses years in production, number of generations, market impact and our own subjective opinion.
10. Rolls-Royce Phantom
First year produced: 1925
Generations: Seven
Famous for: Chariot of the wealthy, icon of elegant motoring.
OK, so the Phantom hasn't been in continuous production since its introduction, with gaps in the 1940s, '90s and early 2000s. No one likes pedantry, though, so we're honoring the Phantom's run, which began in 1925 and continues with not one but three different models today.
Today's Phantom is a squared-off land yacht compared to the coach-built version of the '20s and '30s, but the swooping lines emanating from the front fenders remain, however subtly. No matter the era, the Phantom has been the embodiment of audacious, starched-shirt and single-malt luxury. There's no questioning its icon status.
9. Toyota Land Cruiser
First year produced: 1951
Generations: Nine
Famous for: Being the world's "Jeep."
SUVs have become less about off-road ability and more about family transportation over the decades, and despite its capabilities, Toyota's current Land Cruiser is no exception.
The modern Land Cruiser has a reputation established by the classics to thank for its status: America had the Jeep Wrangler, but the world has had scores of 40 through 70 Series Land Cruisers to traverse the harshest terrain on the planet. The Land Cruiser gets extra credit for spawning a spin-off model (the FJ Cruiser) inspired by perhaps the most iconic Land Cruiser of them all, the 40 Series.
8. Chevrolet Impala
First year produced: 1957
Generations: 10
Famous for: Not only the classic American family car, but a Muscle-era icon.
The Impala has had some great ups and downs since first hitting American highways for the 1958 model year, including a couple short production stoppages. Over the decades Impalas have been everything from Harley Earl-era design masterworks to big-block-equipped vanguards of the muscle car age to plodding malaise-era rental-fleet specials.
The Impala has attained an unlikely cool factor over the years, though: the breakthrough of gangsta rap in the early '90s brought West Coast low-rider culture to the mainstream, its use as the body of Chevrolet's NASCAR racers for years has inspired many gloriously ill-advised tributes, and fans of the TV show Supernatural have come to love the main character's '67 Impala sedan.
If there's a car on this list that proves that greatness comes in many forms, it's the Impala.
