[pepsi_junkie]

It's a boring choice to say "Model T" for 18 years straight but the truth is that it was THE car during that period. Everything else was small potatoes. Of course Ford designed it for simplicity and cost so it was pretty basic technology with a tiny little motor so eventually even Ford had to move on. But to this day you can get a Model T for very little because there are so, so many of them out there. Prior to the model T, people mostly only ever saw the world within 10 miles of where they were born. By the time it was phased out people were moving out of cities to the new suburbs because they had a car to commute with. They went on picnics in the country and traveled across the whole state they lived in (once the roads got good enough).

Like I said, some of the cars here had amazing tech that changed the way cars were designed. The Model T changed America and the world, not because it was a marvel of tech but because it was something people could actually have!

I'm not trying to poop on the thread. It's a great thread and a great article. I am quibbling over "most important" when think they should have said "most interesting" or something like that.

[Secret Agent Man]

Other notable points:

automobiles wound up comnecting people.

road systems were built.

along with roads, it made installing power and phones easier. and maintaining them too.

eventually in many places sewer systems were put in because it made sense to be around roads that would have other utilities and buildings and houses off them.