Tilted Green Blob

9 Unexpectedly Successful Cars

1908 Ford Model T

In the early 1920s, more than half of the vehicles registered in the world were Fords, and most of those were Model Ts.

1945 MG TC

The MG TC was one of the first British cars to go into production after the Second World War and it quickly ran away with sales compared to its closely related pre-war versions.

1946 Volkswagen Beetle

Although very much a pre-war design, the Volkswagen Beetle didn’t really get going until 1946.

1948 Citroën 2CV

In a similar vein to the Volkswagen Beetle, Citroën’s 2CV recognised the need for an affordable car in the post-war world.

1948 Holden FX

Australia was a burgeoning market in the late 1940s, yet it took until the Holden FX was launched in 1948 for the country to have its own entirely domestically produced car.

1963 Porsche 911

It stuck with the rear-engined design inherited from the 356 and retained an air-cooled motor all the way to the introduction of the 996 generation in 1998.

1967 Lotus Elan +2

The two-seat Elan was very much the sort of car drivers expected of Lotus, so the Elan +2 was something quite different when it arrived in 1967.

1971 De Tomaso Pantera

Italian supercars often only just scrape into four-figure production runs, yet the De Tomaso Pantera found 7158 buyers in its three decades on sale.

1983 Chevrolet Corvette C4

Gone were the shark-like lines of the earlier cars and in came smoother looks. The C4 was also a much better built car, with Chevrolet even pausing production in 1982 to sort out quality issues.