The Most Important Cars Of The Past 15 Years
In the 15 years Jalopnik’s been online, we have watched all kinds of cars go into production, but let’s be real, some are more important than others. Our definition of “important” here is as simple as we can make it: significant on a grand scale in terms of impact on the auto industry, on car design, on culture as a whole.
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2005 Ford Mustang
There had been retro cars before, but the 2005 Ford Mustang is the one that made the whole thing feel somehow validated. The PT Cruiser was a desperate ploy for relevancy. The New Beetle was a flash in the pan. The Thunderbird was quickly forgotten. But when Ford showed a 1960s-lookalike new Mustang in 2005, right in the middle of the Bush Years, it felt like an affirmation. Yeah! New tech! Old style! Mission accomplished! Was it all hollow? Maybe, but it did give the world a more lasting successor and a new aesthetic direction.
2011 Ford Raptor
In 2010, the Ford Raptor tip-toed into the world as a suspension kit paired with the blue oval’s ubiquitous the Triton V8 engine. By 2016, the truck had been successful enough to warrant a rebirth with a twin-turbo V6.
But 2011 was the year the Raptor, snagging a 6.2-liter V8 from Ford’s Super Duty line, really made a name for itself. It truly became a standalone model that was not only a halo vehicle for Ford, it also had no small part in moving the desert off-road scene into the mainstream.
Cop Explorer
The fifth-generation Ford Explorer was a generally unremarkable family SUV, but it will forever be burned into the minds of many as the vehicle that moved police motor pools from sedans over to sport utilities.
This vehicle effectively replaced the Crown Vic as America’s default cop car, and while there are still Dodge Chargers and Chevy Caprices running around with red and blue lights, the police Explorer–known officially as the Pursuit Utility–has become the go-to for skull-cracking since it came out in 2012.
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