{"id":24565,"date":"2020-01-02T17:32:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-02T21:32:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=24565"},"modified":"2020-01-02T17:32:28","modified_gmt":"2020-01-02T21:32:28","slug":"payne-10-vehicles-that-defined-the-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/payne-10-vehicles-that-defined-the-decade","title":{"rendered":"Payne: 10 vehicles that defined the decade"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Years from now, historians may rank the past decade as one of the auto industry\u2019s most important.<\/p>\n

The 2010s began with the United States\u00a0crawling out of the worst recession since 1982. SUV sales fizzled as cash-starved consumers opted for cheap cars. Uber and Spotify didn\u2019t exist. Tesla\u2019s lone product, a Lotus-based sports car, was best known for a\u00a0“Top Gear” episode showing it running out of juice.<\/p>\n

But as the economy righted itself, the 21st century\u2019s trends went into hyperdrive: sport-ute mania, digitization, horsepower, regulation, electrification.<\/p>\n

These 10 vehicles defined the decade.<\/p>\n

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Ford F-150<\/h3>\n

The more things change, the more things stay the same. Nothing outsold the Ford F-150 in the last decade. Just like the previous three decades. But the pickup\u2019s significance grew beyond sales numbers. With the enormous technological challenges facing automakers, F-150\u2019s outsize profits became key to underwriting Ford Motor Co.\u2019s investment in expensive, unproven autonomous and electric vehicles. The pickup itself became a change agent as turbocharged V-6s displaced V-8s as volume sellers, and lightweight aluminum\u00a0replaced steel construction.<\/p>\n

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