While exploring Kelley Blue Book’s centennial celebration, I became interested in the most significant automotive innovations of the last 100 years. I was able to dilute this significant period into decade-sized bites to get to the bottom of what innovations really changed the automotive industry each decade.

Let’s dive in…

The 1920s

The 1920s introduced ordinary Americans to the automotive industry, thanks to Henry Ford’s refinement and implementation of the assembly line. Millions of new buyers gained access to previously too-expensive vehicles thanks to automation, bringing their costs down to between $260 and $850, according to the Henry Ford Museum. This price translates to between $4,500 and $15,000 in 2026 buying power, according to most inflation calculators.

It was also during this time that Los Angeles used-car dealer Les Kelley circulated lists of vehicles he wanted to buy and the prices he was willing to pay. Interest grew, and Kelley’s lists evolved into the first version of Kelley Blue Book in 1926.

Read about Kelley Blue Book’s history
 
With the advent of this new era of car ownership, it quickly became clear that without a closed cabin, the driver and their passengers would be at the mercy of Mother Nature. Early vehicles often looked reminiscent of what came before — essentially a horse-drawn carriage with an open top.

The Birth of the Closed-Body Model A

This need prompted the introduction of closed bodies, often made from fabric or steel early in the decade. At the beginning of the decade, only 16% of vehicles had a closed cabin. However, by the end of the decade, due to the proliferation and widespread adoption of closed bodies by automotive manufacturers, nearly 90% of vehicles adopted this design. One of the most notable examples of this transition came with Ford’s release of the Model A, featuring a closed top when it debuted in 1927.

The new closed-body design was so popular that upholstery and body shops were often fully booked by customers interested in converting their vehicles from open to closed, preferring to remain protected from the elements. Over time, fabric and canvas tops were replaced with more durable materials such as glass and steel.

This new development, which focused on driver comfort and safety, was the first in a long line of innovations that led to the vehicles we know and love today.

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Like many important automotive innovations, power steering and power brakes were not invented in the era that saw their widespread use. These features were more common on high-end and luxury vehicles at the beginning of this decade. However, by the end of the 1950s, many mid-range cars were also fitted with this groundbreaking technology.

 

The 1950s

It started in 1951 with Chrysler’s Hydraguide hydraulic power steering system.

This system used hydraulic fluid pressurized by a belt-driven pump to push and control steering racks. Hydraguide required regular checks and maintenance to function as designed. The technology set a new standard for luxury in the early part of the decade, and despite being an expensive option at the time, it quickly became popular thanks to the greater ease of driving it offered.

The same popularity and acceptance followed the introduction of power brakes in the early ’50s. Chrysler was an early adopter of hydraulic power disc brakes, which became more commonplace than their traditional (and less effective) drum brake counterparts.

Eventually, these systems were replaced by the electronically controlled versions we know today, but at the time, these innovations made vehicles more accessible and practical for millions of drivers.






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The 1960s were an era defined by societal change, significant cultural events such as the Moon landing, the birth of the pony car, and the rise of critical safety regulation in the automotive industry.

The Invention and Its Effect

In the early 1960s, most vehicles on the road used the classic lap seatbelt common to cars of the era. In 1959, at the tail end of the ’50s, Volvo designer Nils Bohlin invented the 3-point seatbelt. Volvo then made this innovation freely available worldwide through an open patent.

Though it may not be the most exciting innovation on our list, the 3-point belt is one of the most significant, as it has been directly credited with saving millions of lives worldwide, with regulatory enforcement beginning in 1968 in the U.S..

The credit for the success and importance of the 3-point seatbelt is also clear in its continued use and regulation, more than six decades after its first introduction. 



  

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With the rise of automobiles and production reaching hundreds of millions by the 1970s, it was clear that emissions and smog were becoming a problem, especially in large cities.

The Clean Air Act of 1970

A significant step toward addressing the rise in toxic emissions began with the Clean Air Act of 1970. This legislation paved the way for regulation, which led to the introduction of catalytic converters first in California. 

 

“The problem with automobile engines is that the by-products of combustion are not entirely carbon dioxide and water, but also contain unburned or incompletely burned gasoline, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides. The catalytic converter was designed to correct this problem.” – Robert E. Haag in an article for EBSCO, a leading information services provider.
 
By 1975, there was significant resistance from some members of the automotive industry, such as Chrysler Vice President Alan Loofbourrow, who insisted that catalytic converters were “the dumbest thing that ever happened to the automobile.” However, the 2-part catalytic converters had become standard equipment for the majority of vehicles by the end of the decade, improving efficiency and air quality. This also led to lead being removed from gasoline (as it would contaminate the converters) and was an overall step toward public awareness of environmental concerns tied to vehicles.

An Unintended Side Effect

The introduction of catalytic converters stands as one of the first major efforts in automotive environmental protection, rather than a component intended solely to improve the driving experience. Ironically, this focus on improving air quality actually led to improved horsepower and efficiency, as previously, engineers had tried to work around emissions by detuning engines and sacrificing performance.

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Lots of cars today boast “direct injection,” so it seems commonplace, but that’s only a recent development. Getting the fuel into the cylinders of an internal-combustion engine takes some ingenuity, and it’s been a long road of “firsts” along the way between the late 19th century and the early 21st. The basic carburetor that served to blend fuel vapors with air and deliver the mixture to the intake manifold was one of the “firsts” on the 1886 car devised by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach (some time before they joined forces with Karl Benz). Theirs is often regarded as the first car, and with refinements this carburetor system managed the task well enough for most cars for more than 80 years.

Fuel injection, which allows finer control of the mixture by spraying atomized fuel, was first managed by mechanical means and was a key element for the development of compression-ignition (diesel) engines in the 1920s. There, and in World War II aviation engines, the fuel was most often injected directly into the combustion chamber, known as “direct injection.” When injection started showing up in postwar gasoline production cars, there were dozens of variations but this direct-injection form was rare. One exception was the 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL that, like that era’s M-B racing cars, used a Bosch-developed mechanical direct-injection system. (Some credit a 1952 Goliath with a two-stroke engine that also employed Bosch direct injection, but Goliath was selling city cars in Europe only, and most of those cars had to have their injection replaced with carburetors because they failed.) The 300SL’s “first” is often qualified as the first “production sports car” with fuel injection.

It’s easier and cheaper to design and build injectors that don’t have to survive the hostile environment of a combustion chamber, so other pioneers in the late 1950s used systems that simply replaced the carburetor’s role in delivering fuel into the intake manifold. This generally meant a constant, though modulated, stream of fuel to mix with air drawn in through a throttle mechanism, hence “throttle-body fuel injection.” As emissions regulations and fuel efficiency became growing concerns, it became worthwhile to provide a separate injector for each cylinder, delivering a precisely metered dose of fuel only during the intake phase in that port, or “port fuel injection.” Another worthy refinement was to manage the fuel electronically. While American Motors built prototype Rambler Rebels in 1957 using a Bendix electronic system, it didn’t go into production, leaving “first” honors to Chrysler’s 1958 “Electrojector” system on that model year’s Chrysler 300D, De Soto Adventurer, Dodge D-500, and Plymouth Savoy. Only 35 buyers took the pricey option, and most had it replaced with the standard carburetor after it proved unreliable. So, perhaps the 1968 Volkswagen Type 3, which had the latest Bosch “D-Jetronic” system, could be considered the “first” successful electronic-injected car. Still, it delivered fuel to the manifold, not into the combustion chamber.

It wasn’t until 1996 that modern gasoline direct injection with electronic management appeared on the market. Mitsubishi gets the honors, first on the four-cylinder Galant sedan and on a V-6 the next year. The advantage: improved efficiency, yielding the magic trick of making more power while also getting better fuel economy. In the first five years, Mitsubishi built one-million cars with this GDI, well ahead of the rest of the industry. That Mitsubishi has all but disappeared from the U.S. automotive market suggests, again, that getting there first isn’t always a magic bullet for sales leadership. Or maybe that the company should have brought it here earlier instead of restricting initial sales to Asia and Europe. One challenge: New technology is generally more expensive, at least initially, and the advantage to the buyer isn’t always evident. Beginning in 2004, German luxury brands Audi and BMW did a better job of selling direct injection as an advantage in the United States.

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Has it been a year already? Why, it feels like just yesterday that I was celebrating my acquisition of a Subaru WRX, and now that car is on its second set of brake pads. Not because I put a lot of miles on it, but because some of its miles were logged at Virginia International Raceway (VIR), where it put in a respectable showing on the Grand Course. It would have been even better if I chipped it up over 300 horsepower, but with my older kid now driving on his permit, I think 271 horses is more than sufficient.

In the past year I also sold my Daihatsu Rocky and bought a 2000 Land Rover Discovery, transactions that made me sad and haven’t made me sad yet, respectively. And I’ve also driven lots of new cars and written plenty of reviews, but some observations and discoveries never make it into a story but are nonetheless news I think you can use—for instance, it wasn’t until after the first drive of the 2026 Dodge Charger Scat Pack that I realized it has a secret flap under the right floor mat marked “VIN.” What’s that all about? I’ll tell you that and more, in this, my 2025 Year In Review.

Prove Me Wrong: The Subaru Forester Is a Historic Anomaly

I drove the 2026 Subaru Forester Wilderness, and its leisurely acceleration off the line got me thinking about the 2003 Forester 2.5 XT, which served up a 5.3-second 0-to-60-mph time when we tested it. As its name implies, that old Forester used a 2.5-liter turbocharged engine that made 210 horsepower and 235 pound-feet of torque. Meanwhile, the 2026 Forester’s 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four makes 180 horsepower and 178 pound-feet of torque. (The Forester Hybrid is the most powerful model in the lineup, at 194 horsepower.)

Now, you can argue that Forester buyers don’t really care about muscle, and I’m sure Subaru’s done research to that effect, but can you think of another car this century that had more horsepower 23 years ago than it does now? I’ve told our crack fact-check team to stand down, and I myself haven’t dug into this beyond mild brow-furrowing while trying to think of old cars, but it seems like the Forester is unique in its downward horsepower trajectory. In fact, if we go back 20 years, the horsepower delta was even greater with the 230-hp 2006 Forester 2.5 XT Limited. If this alarming trend continues, the 2046 Forester will be down to 130 hp, the same as a standard 1991 Legacy but less than the 1991 Legacy Sport Sedan. Which also was quicker to 60 mph than the 2026 Forester.

Underrated EV Trick: Front-End Light Shows

Because EVs don’t need grilles—neither do most internal-combustion cars, but forget about that for a moment—that front-end real estate is a fresh palette for creativity. What do you do with a car’s face when it’s not dominated by a grille? Well, you make it the setting for a killer light show, for one thing. GM is really good at EV nighttime drama, as epitomized by the GMC Sierra EV’s Vegas-on-Wheels routine when you unlock it. The DRLs do a routine I’d call “waterfall to reverse-waterfall,” followed by the outlining of the vestigial grille and finally the GMC logo coming to life one letter at a time. Dancing lights add some concept-car pizzazz to the everyday driving experience, and if you’re looking for concept-car pizzazz in your life, this is certainly safer than buying a used Viper.

Underrated EV Trick Number 2: The Mobile Generator Move

The ability of some EVs to provide mobile electric power is, I think, underappreciated. So I try to demonstrate V2L (vehicle to load) whenever possible, because I think it’s awesome that a car can also serve as a small power plant. There are limits, of course, as I discovered when I rolled up to a job site with a Kia EV6 and offered to run a saw via its V2L capability. The outlet under the rear seats is rated at 120 volts/16 amps, so I figured that would be robust enough until I laid eyes on the Skil saw they were running off a portable Predator generator. It looked big enough to carve a redwood into kindling and proved more than the EV6 could handle—it spun up momentarily and then tripped the V2L circuit into overload. But I’d introduced the concept, anyway. One guy commented, “Wait till the Amish hear about generators on wheels.”

The Nissan VC-Turbo Is Proving Itself More Reliable Than You Might Think

I recently tested a 2026 Nissan Murano, and as soon as I started driving, I recognized the VC-Turbo’s signature power delivery, which makes a car feel like it’s being shot from an extremely long rubber band. The “VC” in the engine’s name refers to its variable compression ratio, which is enabled via two-piece connecting rods that can change the engine’s stroke on the fly. Naturally, this is a more complex setup than you’d find in an engine with a fixed compression ratio, but Nissan always envisioned the VC-Turbo as a mass-market engine rather than an exotic showcase of technological prowess, and as such, it’s been used in Rogues, Altimas, the Infiniti QX50/QX55, and the Murano, in both three-cylinder and four-cylinder forms.

Now, Nissan did do a recall of 443,889 pre-2023 VC-Turbos for potential bearing failure, but the recall was based on a relatively small sample of actual warranty claims (fewer than 900) and mostly amounted to “the dealer will look at your car, and your warranty will be extended to 10 years or 120,000 miles.” I asked Nissan how many VC-Turbos have been produced thus far at its Decherd, Tennessee, plant, and learned that as of early December, that number stood at nearly 780,000 engines. With GM struggling with its 6.2-liter V-8 and Toyota dealing with failures of its 3.4-liter V-6, the VC-Turbo is notable for not being notable these past three years.

A quick peek at our handy Marketplace turns up VC-Turbos with plenty of mileage, like this 2023 Rogue with 186,000 miles. I wouldn’t be afraid of that, though I might be wary of an Altima with the VC-Turbo. Not because of the VC-Turbo part of that, but because of the Altima’s thirst for mayhem.

Tesla Chargers Rule, But There Are Challenges

Last summer, a row of Tesla Superchargers appeared in the parking lot of one of my local supermarkets, just in time for North American Charge Standard compatibility to spread across the EV ecosystem. The first non-Tesla I took there was a Ford Lightning Flash, and I immediately discovered a flaw in the brave new world of universal charge standards: The Lightning was designed without Superchargers in mind, and thus its charge port is in a terrible spot. Actually, its charge port location—on the back part of the front fender, ahead of the driver’s side door—is bad for most chargers, but especially for Tesla’s, with their stubby cords. To plug in the Lightning, I had to put the front bumper nearly up against the charger. I assert that all charge ports should be on a corner of the vehicle, as far forward as possible, to mitigate this problem.

I also noticed that not all cars charge equally at the Tesla chargers. Of course, not all cars charge equally, period, but most vehicles (like the aforementioned Sierra EV) pulled more than 150 kW once the juice got flowing. But on three separate visits with a Lucid Air Touring, different chargers all settled in at a piddling 47 kW and stayed there. Putting on my conspiracy-theory hat, could Tesla be dialing back the charge speed for competitors? Maybe I should ask Grok.

I Got Spoiled for All Driving Simulators

Last spring, I attended the Heritage Invitational concours at the Ten Tenths Club in Charlotte. Besides seeing two Ones (AMGs, that is) parked next to each other, I got to try a Simcraft Apex GT driving simulator. And now I’m spoiled. I can’t go back to my fixed seat and Fanatec wheel, for I have scaled the heights of driving simulation and witnessed the possibility of barf-free virtual racing.

The sim at Ten Tenths had six degrees of freedom, meaning it could move in any way that a car would, smoothly simulating whichever g-forces corresponded with your on-screen driving. Thus, I was able to drive without a hint of the uncanny valley inner-ear discord I’ve experienced with every other simulator, including the lavish Ford Performance one in Charlotte. The Simcraft, which has a base price of $99,900 in Apex 6 form (simulating roll, pitch, yaw, surge, sway, and heave), is evidently popular with well-heeled race drivers. But owners don’t tend to talk about their Simcraft, because it essentially allows unlimited practice time, which some might construe as an unfair advantage.

I think that one of these would really take the Car and Driver office Forza league to the next level. We can keep it at my house.

I Affirmed Why Car Dealers Hate EVs

I was driving a Volvo EX90 EV and wandered onto the onscreen menu that included the upcoming service schedule: 557 days or 17,040 miles. This is the reason why car dealers cheer any effort to steer the mix toward internal combustion—not because of their stated reason of consumer choice, but because they want to do oil changes and replace air filters, mufflers, fuel filters, and transmissions, among much else. The EX90’s “see you in a couple years for my tire rotation!” service reminder tells the tale. Somehow, I think car dealers will be OK. Optimist that I am, I figure that even when we’re all driving solid-state hovercars with no moving parts, the people will still need their ceramic coatings renewed and glass etching buffed, right?

I Saw a VinFast in the Wild

After writing our review of the VinFast VF8, I had my doubts about the company’s planned factory in North Carolina. Those doubts calcified after I was supposed to have a meeting with VinFast executives at their Raleigh headquarters, only to be stood up—they missed a flight connection or something, and nobody told me. I did go to their (locked) offices, which looked like an abandoned WeWork space in a building downtown. But VinFast pushed its wares fairly aggressively in North Carolina, with $250-per-month leases on the VF8, so you see them around now and then, reminders of what might have been. Thus concludes the last time I’ll write about VinFast, unless I see one parked next to a Fisker Ocean.

Speaking of VINs . . .

I was shaking out the passenger-side floor mat of a 2026 Dodge Charger Scat Pack when I noticed a curious flap on the carpet underneath, labeled “VIN.” What could it mean? Did Vin Diesel autograph this car? Curious, I pulled up on the flap, which was loosely sewn down with a couple stitches of thread, to find the car’s vehicle identification number stamped on the floorpan beneath.

Sometimes, car reviewing requires putting yourself in the mindset of a toddler and pointing at something and asking, “What that?” So that’s what I did. And Dodge looked into it and informed me that the under-carpet VIN is a homologation requirement for other countries, so we get it too. I know what you’re thinking: The Charger is sold in other countries? Indeed, and it’s evidently quite popular in the Middle East. And might be even more so once they slam a V-8 into it, but that’s a thought for next year.

Ezra Dyer is a Car and Driver senior editor and columnist. He’s now based in North Carolina but still remembers how to turn right. He owns a 2009 GEM e4 and once drove 206 mph. Those facts are mutually exclusive.

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Jensen Motors, an iconic name in the British automotive world during much of the 20th century, was widely known for its Interceptor grand touring model, which, throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s forged a cherished legacy with Carrozzeria Touring design and powerful V8 engines under the hood. Remaining an icon among enthusiasts, the Interceptor’s legacy is that of a beloved classic with performance brawn, but Jensen International Automotive is now poised to give the legendary, historic marque a new chapter.