Citroën DS

Citroën DS, styled by Flaminio Bertoni, 1955 If one car on this list looks as though it arrived from a later decade, it is this one. Chief stylist Flaminio Bertoni gave it a low, tapering body that sat on hydropneumatic, self-leveling suspension, so the shape and the ride were conceived together. Paris understood at once. Unveiled at the Paris Motor Show on October 5, 1955, it took more than 700 orders within minutes and 12,000 by the end of the day, and Robert Opron later handled its 1967 facelift. MoMA's collection holds a 1973 DS 23. This is the purest case for a family car as a work of design.