There are hundreds, if not thousands, of seriously influential people who set the automotive world on the path that it has travelled. Whether engineers or pencil pushers, advertisers or C-suite executives, everyone has a role to play, but some wield far more influence than others. Cars have been pushing the human experiment farther and faster for nearly 140 years now, and the stories that have been written in time over the decades are incredible. If you had to pick a single person to name as the most influential in the world of the automobile, who would it be? You could make an argument for any number of people, and I want to hear who you rate the highest.
The American and European automakers ruled the early era of driving, effectively from the late 1800s to the 1960s. Later on competition came in, first from Japan, then Korea, and now China. Surely there are people in each of those markets that set something on a track that pushed it to greatness, and even spending all day studying the automotive market for the last two decades, I’m positive there are stories I haven’t yet heard. If you think there is someone who changed the world of cars, toss your recommendation in the comments below, we want to hear them, and we’ll highlight a few of our favorites next week.
The answer is obviously Lido Anthony Iacocca
Lee Iacocca is my choice for the most influential person in car history. Sure, you could make arguments for Akio Toyoda, Ferdinand Piëch, Henry Ford, or any number of others, but nobody has reinvented the automobile industry as many times as Iacocca has. The son of Italian immigrants in southeast Michigan, Iacocca was wildly successful at figuring out exactly what consumers needed from car companies. As a Ford executive in the 1960s, Mr. Iacocca was instrumental in the launch of the wildly successful Mustang. As president of the same company he set the Blue Oval up to compete with Japan during an era of fuel and economic crisis. Across the 1980s he was drafted in to save Chrysler from bankruptcy, pushed the affordable and basic K-cars, and got the company back in the black. He was the father of the minivan, brought Jeep and Lamborghini into the Big Three, gave the green light to the Viper, and was an early proponent of electric mobility.
While Iacocca died in 2019, his legacy lives on after a totally wild fifty-year career in the business. Nothing today would be the same without him having done what he did. Peerless in his influence, Iacocca is my nomination for the most influential person in automotive history. What’s your answer? Sound off in the comments below.
