![\"a-quick-history-of-the-automobile-4.28.14\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-ds.com\/blogs-media\/sites\/126\/2016\/01\/11150124\/a-quick-history-of-the-automobile-4.28.14-466x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Karl Benz is considered to have built and patented the first proper automobile, in 1886–the aptly named, three-wheeled Patent-Motorwagen. Through the end of the century, inventors would experiment with vehicles powered by other means: diesel, electric, even steam.\u00a0 By the beginning of the 20th century, the automobile was changing the landscape of cities and cultures around the world. With their Oldsmobile and Model T machines, Ransom Olds and Henry Ford made the car a ubiquitous part of American life.<\/p>\nWorld War II reconfigured the auto industry, shaking out minor players and turning the major companies into manufacturers for the military for a time. The symbol of the era was the Jeep, the go-anywhere machine that came home from war with its rugged image intact, making it a grandfather of today’s SUVs.\u00a0 As the world pulled out of the post-war era, cars flourished with fantastic Jet Age designs that gave way to a new generation of compact cars heavily influenced by the VW Beetle, Germany’s “people’s car.” The Beetle made small cars relevant in America–and without it, there would be no Corolla, no Civic, no Focus.<\/p>\n
The SUV really was invented in the 1930s with the first four-wheel-drive\u00a0Chevy Suburban\u00a0wagon, but it came into its own in the 1990s with the launch of the\u00a0Ford Explorer\u00a0and the Jeep Grand Cherokee, two top sellers that forever changed the idea of what a family car could be.\u00a0 As the SUV replaced the wagon, the pickup truck also became an alternative to the car. Trucks dominated the sales charts in the first decade of this century. Already the best-selling vehicle in America for decades, the Ford F-150 posted its best-ever year in 2004 with nearly a million sales–and Chevy, Dodge, and GMC weren’t far behind.\u00a0 At the same time, greener vehicles were gaining fans, thanks to rising gas prices. The Toyota Prius became the first mass-production hybrid car in 1998.<\/p>\n
What is in store for the future of the vehicle?\u00a0 We\u2019ll leave that up to the manufacturers and their imaginations.<\/p>\n