If you're like me, and spend your time going between 40-year-old cars and brand new cars, you're constantly struck by just how much cars have changed. But, if you're not always ping-ponging between automotive decades, sometimes it's hard to see this. That's why I thought it'd be handy to have this chart.
This chart is designed to just give a general sense of how cars have developed, decade-by-decade. Each decade features a car that is, in some fundamental ways, the most ordinary, averagest, conventional car of its era. Like we asked you about earlier this week.
We're not talking about the bestsellers or the icons, but rather the ones that used the most common method of doing things for the time. That's why in the 1960s, let's say, even though globally there were VW Beetles everywhere, it was an outlier, mechanically. Most cars by then were front-engined, water-cooled, rear-drivers, not funny little rear-engined air-coolers. So, the car picked for each decade may very well be one too boring for you to usually consider. Most of the cars hail from the middle of their decades, too. But it's a product of its era.
This chart is mostly U.S.-market based, but I tried to get some international cars in there as well. Also, for the price, the original cost is listed first, then it's translated into 2015 dollars in parentheses.
Sound good? Okay, then! Look at this chart, scrutinize it, and then let's figure out what's most interesting or notable in the comments. I'm really curious to see what people find interesting.
Have at it! (full size can be seen here, too!)