Nissan Altima

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• Top 6 Sedans of All Time

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• Toyota Camry

  The Toyota Camry has been the best-selling car in the United States for the better part of two decades, a run built almost entirely on a reputation for unglamorous, consistent reliability rather than any single flashy feature — the kind of car millions of American families have bought specifically because it doesn't demand much attention to keep running well past 200,000 miles. That reputation has made the Camry a fixture of independent long-term reliability studies, regularly posting some of the lowest reported repair rates of any midsize sedan across successive generations, a track record that's helped it hold resale values well above many nominally sportier or more feature-rich competitors. The current generation dropped the traditional four-cylinder-only base engine lineup entirely in favor of a hybrid powertrain across every trim, a genuinely significant shift for a car this high-volume — effectively making one of America's best-selling vehicles a hybrid by default rather than by special order. Built primarily at Toyota's Georgetown, Kentucky plant, the Camry's decades-long run as America's default "reliable family sedan" recommendation has made it one of the most commercially significant nameplates in the entire history of the US auto market, regardless of how unglamorous that reputation might sound next to flashier competitors.

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• Honda Civic

  The Honda Civic launched in the US in 1972, arriving just as the 1973 oil crisis made small, fuel-efficient cars suddenly urgent for American buyers who'd spent the previous decade favoring much larger domestic sedans, and the Civic's timing helped establish Honda as a serious, permanent player in the US market almost overnight. Across more than a dozen generations since, the Civic has built one of the strongest enthusiast followings of any mainstream compact car, driven substantially by performance variants like the Civic Si and, later, the Civic Type R — genuinely track-capable hot hatches that gave the otherwise practical commuter nameplate real credibility in amateur racing and tuning communities. The Civic has also become one of the most modified cars in American automotive culture, its affordability and aftermarket parts availability making it a foundational platform for an entire generation of import tuning culture that emerged through the 1990s and 2000s, later depicted (if loosely) in franchises like The Fast and the Furious. Built at Honda's plant in Greensburg, Indiana, the Civic's combination of decades of reliable, fuel-efficient commuting duty and a genuinely serious enthusiast and tuning subculture built around its performance variants has made it one of the most culturally significant compact cars in American automotive history.

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• Toyota Corolla

  The Toyota Corolla has been in continuous production since 1966, and by most counts it's the best-selling nameplate in automotive history worldwide, with well over 50 million units sold across more than a dozen generations and production facilities spanning multiple continents. That scale reflects a deliberately conservative engineering philosophy Toyota has maintained across the Corolla's entire history — incremental, low-risk updates rather than dramatic redesigns, prioritizing proven reliability and low cost of ownership over any single standout feature, a formula that's made it a default entry-level and fleet-vehicle choice in dozens of countries simultaneously. The Corolla has also served as an entry point into car ownership for generations of first-time buyers specifically because of its low purchase price and famously low long-term maintenance costs, a reputation that's made it one of the most recommended used cars for buyers on a tight budget for decades running. Built at Toyota's plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi for the US market alongside numerous other facilities worldwide, the Corolla's sheer global sales volume and unbroken six-decade production run have made it, by most measures, the single most commercially successful car nameplate ever sold anywhere in the world.

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• Chevrolet Impala

  The Chevrolet Impala launched in 1958 and quickly became one of the best-selling cars in America through the 1960s, its full-size body and increasingly powerful V8 options making it a genuine centerpiece of Chevrolet's lineup during the peak years of American automotive chrome-and-tailfin styling. The Impala's cultural footprint extended well beyond its original showroom success — lowrider culture in Southern California, particularly within Chicano communities, adopted the 1960s Impala as one of its foundational platforms, customizing the car's suspension and body with hydraulics in a tradition that's remained closely associated with the nameplate for decades since. Chevrolet repositioned the Impala over subsequent decades from its original full-size performance identity toward a more mainstream family sedan role, a shift that reflected the broader American sedan market's evolution even as the nameplate's earlier chrome-era models became increasingly prized as classic collector cars. Built at various General Motors plants across its production history, including facilities in Detroit, the Impala's arc from a 1960s performance and styling icon to a foundational lowrider culture platform to an eventual mainstream family sedan traces much of the broader history of the American full-size car itself before Chevrolet discontinued the nameplate in 2020.

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• Ford Taurus

  The Ford Taurus launched in 1986 with a deliberately radical aerodynamic design that broke sharply from the boxy, upright sedans dominating American showrooms at the time, and the car's rounded, wind-tunnel-tested shape was initially considered a major risk internally at Ford before it became a genuine sales and design landmark. That aerodynamic gamble paid off dramatically — the Taurus became the best-selling car in America for several years running in the early 1990s, and its design language influenced a broader industry-wide shift toward more aerodynamic, rounded sedan styling across nearly every American manufacturer through the following decade. The Taurus also became one of the most recognizable rental-car and police-fleet sedans in the country for years, a ubiquity that, while less glamorous than its original design-icon status, reflected genuinely broad and sustained commercial success across very different buyer segments simultaneously. Built at Ford's Chicago Assembly Plant among other facilities, the Taurus's shift from a genuinely disruptive design statement in 1986 to a dependable fleet and rental-car staple in later decades reflects one of the more complete arcs of any American sedan nameplate's changing market position over a single generation-spanning run.

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More in Cars

• Ford

  Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford in 1903, and the company's 1908 Model T, combined with Ford's pioneering implementation of the moving assembly line in 1913, dramatically reduced production costs and time, making automobile ownership accessible to ordinary American families for the first time. Ford's assembly-line manufacturing innovation is widely regarded as one of the most consequential developments in the entire history of industrial manufacturing, fundamentally reshaping not just the automotive industry but manufacturing processes across countless other industries worldwide. The Ford Mustang, launched in 1964, created and came to define the "pony car" segment of affordable sporty coupes, and the F-Series pickup truck line has been the best-selling vehicle in the United States for decades running, reflecting Ford's enduring commercial dominance in specific vehicle categories. Ford's combination of its history-making assembly-line manufacturing innovation and its enduringly dominant F-Series and Mustang model lines has made it one of the most historically significant car brands in the history of the automobile.

• Toyota

  Toyota was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda, growing out of his father Sakichi Toyoda's automatic loom manufacturing business, and it developed the Toyota Production System, a manufacturing philosophy emphasizing waste elimination and continuous improvement that became globally influential well beyond the auto industry. The Toyota Production System's core principles, including "just-in-time" manufacturing and "kaizen" continuous improvement, were later studied and adapted by manufacturers across virtually every industry worldwide, making Toyota's specific manufacturing philosophy one of the most influential business innovations of the 20th century. Toyota became the world's largest automaker by production volume at various points, and its Corolla and Camry models rank among the best-selling cars in automotive history worldwide, reflecting the brand's long-standing reputation for reliability and value across a broad global customer base. Toyota's combination of its globally influential production system and its position as one of the world's largest and most reliable automakers has made it one of the most commercially and industrially significant car brands ever created.

• Mercedes-Benz

  Mercedes-Benz traces its lineage to Karl Benz's 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, widely recognized as the first purpose-built automobile, and to Gottlieb Daimler's separate early automotive engineering work, with the two companies eventually merging in 1926 to form Daimler-Benz. The brand's three-pointed star logo, representing the company's ambition to power vehicles on land, sea, and air, became one of the most recognized automotive emblems in the world, and Mercedes-Benz has long positioned itself at the intersection of luxury, safety innovation, and engineering prestige. Mercedes-Benz pioneered numerous automotive safety innovations that became industry standard, including the crumple zone in the 1950s and the first production airbag in the 1980s, reflecting a company research priority that materially influenced automotive safety standards well beyond its own vehicle lineup. Mercedes-Benz's combination of its foundational claim to inventing the automobile itself and its historically significant safety engineering innovations has made it one of the most prestigious and influential car brands in automotive history.

• BMW

  BMW, short for Bayerische Motoren Werke (Bavarian Motor Works), was founded in Munich in 1916, originally manufacturing aircraft engines during World War I before the Treaty of Versailles's restrictions on German aircraft production pushed the company into motorcycle and eventually automobile manufacturing. The company's blue-and-white roundel logo, often mistakenly described as representing a spinning airplane propeller, actually derives from the colors of the Bavarian flag, though the propeller association became such a persistent piece of brand mythology that BMW itself has occasionally leaned into the story in its own marketing. BMW's "Ultimate Driving Machine" positioning, emphasizing performance-oriented engineering and driver-focused handling, helped establish the brand as a leading player in the premium sport sedan segment, a category BMW's 3 Series in particular helped define for competitors across the industry. BMW's combination of its origins in aircraft engine manufacturing and its performance-focused "Ultimate Driving Machine" brand identity has made it one of the most recognized premium car brands in the world.

• Porsche

  Porsche was founded by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931, initially as an automotive design and engineering consultancy — the same firm responsible for designing the original Volkswagen Beetle — before the company began producing its own cars under the Porsche name after World War II. The Porsche 911, introduced in 1963 and continuously produced with its distinctive rear-engine layout ever since, is one of the longest continuously produced sports car models in automotive history, having evolved through numerous generations while maintaining a recognizably consistent core design silhouette. Porsche's extensive motorsport history, including a record number of overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race, reflects the company's deep engineering ties between its racing programs and its road car development, a connection the brand has maintained more consistently than almost any competitor. Porsche's combination of the 911's unmatched design continuity and its record-setting Le Mans racing history has made it one of the most engineering-respected sports car brands in automotive history.