Most famous individual car of all time?

I would dare say the DeLorean is a slick, polished machine in comparison to many of it's contemporaries. Just sayin....

 

Bond Esprit gets my vote... My S2 Esprit is red but I have the 007 gun logo on it and the license plate JAMZBOND.... Everyone seems to know the car and the association with Bond.


beev

 

Right in the money! We're not exactly a cross-section of world population here.

I think the only real case that has been made here is the Batmobile. All the rest are either locally (General Lee), generationally (Mach 5, DeLorean), or culturally (Eleonore, Aston Martin) challenged.
But the Batmobile (as much as I hate it) has been with us since the 40s in comics, and since 1966 in TV, with close to global distribution.
My honorable mention goes to Herbie. Just because it is a WV Bug and has been the main character of so many movies spanning at least... I dunno, maybe close to 50 years?
I know for a fact that my 9 YO girl recognized a single one of all mentioned (other than Lighting Mc Queen- her generation), and it was Herbie.

 

Most identifiable single vehicle = Lunar Roving Vehicle almost everyone on the planet could identify this.

Most identifiable model of vehicle = Willys Jeep/Wrangler people forget about these everyone knows a Jeep when they see it, it's also been in constant production with the same basic shape and style since July 1940. The name Jeep has been so ingrained in our minds that a LOT of people call all SUV's Jeeps.

 

mike lowrie (aka will smith's) 911 turbo. God I must've watched that movie 1000 times as a teenager.

 

model t ford.sold worldwide 1909-1927...15 million built...in "wings"...in most all movies pre 1925...in almost every laurel and hardy movie...in any dust bowel movie...in any roaring 20's movie...in disney's absent minded professor,..in pixar "cars"....cohen brothers "o brother" movie...R U N N O F T.....way more screen time than most anything other than a horse..... according to imcdb appeared in approx 768 movies or tv probuctions worldwide

 

The more I think of it it's the Beetle no doubt. Ask anyone, say 5 years or older. What kind of car is that? (pointing to a beetle). In the US I betcha that 90% of ALL people would know what a VW beetle is. Young/old, black/white, male/female, rich/poor.

The beetle is also a global car. The beetle began, more or less in 1950 (actually in 1938 but..early beetles are very rare) They stopped importing them to N.A in 79 but continued to build them until 2002?

IIRC 20+ million beetles were built.

 

I think this thread is about one car that everyone knows about, not a car model.

 

Yes you`re correct, long day at work. Well lets throw some Herbie stickers on 1 of those beetles.

 

From the thread title I saw the question as what is the most famous individual car not model.

Obviously if we were talking model the VW Bug is it. No questions. But thats not my understanding of the question. I think we are looking for a specific car. Not specific model.

I originally said the BTTF Delorean. Though the original Batmobile and the Speed Racer Mach 5 are definitely in the running. At least worldwide. The other two that could take it are the lunar rover and JFK car.

Most of the other cars mentioned are only recognizable to a certain demographic or geographic area.

 

Sorry I meant Herbie the Love Bug. I say that because the everyone will recognize Herbie and know its a VW. That makes it the most famous.

The Delorean from Back to the Future may be recognizable but I bet few know it's a Delorean or what a Delorean is. So, that means it's a not recognizable as "a car". Recognizable as a movie prop... YES. As a car... NO.

The question is what is the most famous individual car. To me, that means you have to recognize it as a car.

 

Like has been said, it's the lunar roving vehicle.

Model of car I still say the Jeep, was deployed in Europe, Africa, every part of Asia, been to Antarctica, South America, and Russia knew it as well.....

 

Easily Herbie. Look at Disney, VW bug production numbers, how many movies, all over how much time. Nothing I can think of is anything close.

 

I would consider these three to be a equal in recognition:
Magnum's 308
Herbie the Love Bug
The General Lee

Yet we cannot forget the 'smoke shack on wheels' lol!
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that's why I mentioned the pope-mobile: over a billion catholics worldwide, and even those who aren't catholic see that car on TV/internet/papers all the time.

 

Id never seen it until you posted it...but then again, I tend to burst into flames when i get near a church

 

hold on a second, my holy water is boiling

 

You guys are far far too US-focused. Someone in China or Africa will never have heard of most of the cars you list. The only contender IMHO would be the lunar vehicle, but I doubt that a majority of people over the world would recognize even that one.

 

Not really - the James Bond Lotus Esprit was instrumental in bringing down a global crime syndicate and never entered the US as far as I know.

 

Mostly agree... but again, Herbie and the Batmobile are worldwide icons.

I think that one (along with many others mentioned here) is very generational focused. Only those of us that lived the Space Race give any significance to it. Younger people don't know about it, IMHO. "Apollo XI? You mean the boxer in that old, old movie?"

 

I'm 25, so I count myself to the younger generation You don't need to know about the Apollo program and the details of the space race to identify the lunar car!

 

No more generationally focused than most of the other suggestions have been geographically focused to North American culture....

 

There you go, I was wrong! Not for the first time, rest assured ;-)

 

Fully agree.

 

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