the.com/car
two tons of personal freedom that quietly became the most expensive room you rarely sit in
means A wheeled motor vehicle, typically powered by an engine, built to carry a few people on roads.
from From the Old North French 'carre,' which came from Latin 'carrus,' a four-wheeled wagon — a word the Romans themselves borrowed from the Gauls (it's likely Celtic, related to a root meaning 'to run'). For centuries 'car' meant any cart or chariot, lingering poetically in things like a 'car' of state. Then the automobile arrived around 1900 and quietly drove off with the word, leaving the old wagons behind.
- idle time
- parked roughly 95 percent of its life
- first crash
- recorded in 1891, Ohio, lone telephone pole
- part count
- around 30,000 components per vehicle
- speed record
- jet-powered Thrust SSC broke the sound barrier
- horse roots
- horsepower still measures engines decades later
ford model t — 15 million produced 1908-1927, first mass-produced automobile
volkswagen beetle — over 21 million sold since 1938, best-selling car of all time
toyota corolla — over 50 million sold since 1966, world's best-selling car currently