David Finlay

If Bugatti's quad-turbocharged W16 is unique but memorable, here are those engines that are forgotten and distinctive

Within five years, it had hit the jackpot, creating the most important, and for a long time the best-selling, car in history. The definition of ‘great’ is fluid – we’re using it here to describe cars which might not have excelled in all areas, but which at least pushed Ford forward in one way or another. The main requirement of any manufacturer’s first car is that it should be successful enough to allow the company to create a second.

With a live recording of the Jobber Tears Podcast and a Halloween costume contest for a 100 dollar Amazon gift card

A very small number have exceeded a million miles, some of them by a substantial margin, and within that group here are 19 that have done so on their original engines. This BMW 325i bought by Mobil Oil in 1990 had what was probably the easiest million-mile run in history.

The Gremlin was handsomely outsold by the rival Ford Pinto, but it was produced by a far smaller company than any of the Big Three, all of which had much greater resources. The British Leyland conglomerate was, and remains, an easy target for jokes about poor design, reliability and industrial relations.

Ranked: the longest-living car engines Tried and trusted engines can survive in production for decades – often far longer than the cars in which they're fitted. These are the longest survivors

This makes it less likely that models built in North America will do well in Europe, or vice versa, but that hasn’t stopped manufacturers from trying. The second-generation Audi 5000 (America’s equivalent of the third-generation Audi 100 as it was named elsewhere) should have sold well, but it became famous for cases of a phenomenon called sudden unintended acceleration.

David Brown (1904-1993) drove it shortly before deciding to buy the company, so he must have been impressed, but there was never to be a production version. Marcello Gandini (born 1938) must have been looking the future square in the face when he designed the low wedge shape and scissor doors for the mid-engined Carabo. At first glance, the RX-500 seemed like it had been designed for the same reasons as the Alfa Romeo Carabo.

Over the last century and a quarter, motoring has become entangled in a web of untruths and half-truths.

Here are some examples of design flaws, presented in alphabetical order of the cars they apply to. Switching on a car's lights normally usually requires a single action, as it should. In the case of the Alfa MiTo, the driver had to delve into the trip computer, making no fewer than seven button presses, and could do so only when the car was stationary.