Be the Life of any Super Bowl Party with these Cool Car Facts

If you love cars as we do, you are going to love these cool car facts. Whip out a few of these babies at your next Super Bowl get-together and you’ll be the life of the party (Score!).

• The largest automakers in the world (by production) are #1 Toyota, #2 Volkswagen, and #3 Renault Nissan Mitsubishi.
• You can thank Volkswagen for Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Audi, SEAT, and Bugatti – Oh, and Ducati motorcycles too.
• There are approximately 30,000 parts that makeup just one car.
• Throughout a car’s lifespan, it will spend about 95% of it parked.
• Of ALL the Rolls-Royce cars that have ever been built, 75% are still on the road.
• The average car in the United States is driven about 15,000 miles a year.
• In the U.S. in 1913 there were more than one million registered cars. According to the Federal Highway Administration, there were 272,480,899 cars registered in 2017.
• According to AAA, when you consider maintenance, sales price, fuel costs, and depreciation, the cost of owning a car in America averages $8,469 a year. However, purchasing a new pickup will run you around $10,054 a year while a small sedan is around $6,354 a year. And those electric cars that are so reliable? Well, they cost about $6,439 a year.
• Henry Ford is responsible for paring down Model T production time from 12 hours to two and a half hours.
• The first Japanese car ever produced in an American factory was the Honda Accord in 1982 at Ohio’s Marysville Auto Plant.
• The last car with an optional cassette player was the 2011 Ford Crown Victoria. The last car with a standard player was the 2010 Lexus SC430.
• Ralph Teetor, who invented the cruise control, was blind.
• The Ford Mustang is said to have been named after the WWII P-51 Mustang fighter plane, not the horse. John Najjar, Ford’s executive stylist, was reportedly a fan and is responsible for naming the car.
• The average car’s life expectancy in 1995 was about 8 years. In 2019 that jumped to more than 11 years.
• Your chances of dying in a car wreck are 1 in 5,000.
• The average person will be in a car accident once every 18 years — but some people aren’t average.
• The first recorded car wreck was in 1891 and involved the first single-cylinder gas-powered car. John Williams Lambert was the driver (and builder), hitting the car’s top speed of a blistering 5 miles per hour. He hit a tree root which, ironically, pitched the car into a hitching post.
• The first auto insurance policy was purchased in 1897 in Westfield, Massachusetts.
• Carl Benz did not invent the “Benz Patent Motorcar” (the first self-propelled, practical vehicle). He filed the patent for it in 1886 and it was a combination of several inventions, including Niepce’s internal combustion engine (the first in the world) and Cugnot’s steam-powered self-propelled vehicle.
• The first toll roads in the U.S. were located in Pennsylvania and Connecticut — in 1792.
• Charles Goodyear was not the founder of Goodyear Tires. He did develop the technology that was used to make rubber stronger, called vulcanization. The company name is a way of honoring his incredible contribution to the automotive industry.
• The official name of the iconic woman on the Rolls Royce hood ornament is “The Spirit of Ecstasy.”
• The 3-point seatbelt was invented by Volvo. The extraordinary bit of trivia here, though, is that they did not patent it. They left it free and clear so other carmakers could use it in their vehicles.
• In one year, the average commuter in the United States will spend about 38 hours sitting in traffic. In larger cities like New York, DC, and LA, that number jumps to around 60 hours.
• Flutes, candles, and alcoholic beverages were invented before the wheel.
• The first wheels were not used for wagons, chariots, and other vehicles. They were used for pottery.
• An electric car has about 150 pounds of copper wiring, compared to the average gasoline-powered car that has about 55 pounds.
• If you laid out the copper wiring that’s in some luxury cars, it would be about a mile long. For the majority of basic cars, it would be about a half a mile.
• Whether you are looking to buy a cool classic or a sleek, modern exotic, Woodside Credit can help make it happen. Our easy terms and low monthly payments will have you in the driver’s seat in no time. Contact us today and let us help you put that coveted car in YOUR driveway!