Best From a Decade That Changed the Auto Industry

<< previous image | next image >> It’s hard to believe just 10 years ago automakers were working double-time to churn out the biggest SUVs consumers could stuff into their garages. Bigger was better, fuel economy be damned. Why worry when gas was less than a buck-and-a-half a gallon and few people knew about, let alone cared about, global warming? Now, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, everything has changed. The realities of volatile fuel prices, global climate change and a worldwide economic slowdown brought some of the biggest automakers to their knees. The auto industry is in the midst of its biggest change in decades. It’s long overdue. Hybrids are hot, automakers have rediscovered electric cars and everyone’s promising us cleaner, greener cars. We’re even seeing Americans starting to give diesels the respect they deserve. Oh, sure, automakers still build a lot of big, powerful vehicles. They always have and always will. But you know the rules have changes when even Porsche and Ferrari are developing hybrids. We’re on the cusp of a new chapter for the auto industry. It’s an exciting time to be a gearhead, because we’ll see more change in the next 10 years than we’ve seen in the last 50. As that chapter opens, we take a look back at 10 cars that moved the auto industry forward during the past decade. They’re listed in chronological order. Above: Audi

TT (2003) The Audi TT first debuted as a concept in 1995 and for the next eight years existed as a tomboyish kid sister to the A4 and A6. It wasn’t particularly fast — a mere 178 horses from the base 1.8 liter four-cylinder engine — and it gained a reputation as a car that offered more show than go. In 2003, the TT made history when it became the first production car sold worldwide to offer what Audi called the Direct Shift Gearbox — an electronically-controlled manual transmission with dual clutches that outsmarted even the most seasoned drivers. One clutch controls first, third, fifth and reverse while the other handles second, fourth and sixth. That allows for seamless, 0.2 second shifts, since up- and downshifts are “pre-loaded” even while the transmission remains in gear. Sure, Citroen invented the technology back in the ’30s and Porsche tried it on the track in the ’80s, but advances in computing made a production version possible in time to revitalize the TT. When it debuted, Car and Driver said the DSG “will soon become the transmission of choice across a broad swath of the automotive landscape.” Today, nearly every car in the Volkswagen Group lineup has one as an option, and dual clutch transmissions are cropping up on Hyundai concepts and Ford subcompacts . Photo: Audi

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Best From a Decade That Changed the Auto Industry