102 Interesting Facts About Cars That You Should Know

Last updated on July 24th, 2022

Faster than 350 mph

51. On 15 September 1938, the Railton Mobile Special is the first car in the history to go faster than 350 mph (563.27 km/h). After further development, On 16 September 1947, John Cobb was able to break 400 mph (640 km/h) in a measured test. The car is available at Thinktank, the Museum of Science in Birmingham, England.

Plenty of cars

52. About one-quarter of worlds cars are in America.

Unusual

53. Did you know that some of the cars by Japanese car makers built overseas are exported back to Japan?

Insurance, they all need it!

54. According to a study commissioned by Quadrant Information Services, the average cost of car insurance in America is just over $1300. The highest annual cost of car insurance was recorded in Michigan at $2,000.

A rare Rolls Royce

55. Did you know that the Rolls Royce HP-15 is one of the rarest cars on the planet? Wondering why? Learn that a total of 6 of these cars were made. Only one of these cars is still available in the world. And it is estimated worth is $35 million. The car had 3 cylinders and a top speed of 39 miles per hour.

Reconstruction of an automobile invented by Leonardo da Vinci, on view at Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise in France.
Interesting facts about cars: Reconstruction of the automobile invented by Leonardo da Vinci, on view at Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise in France. Image source – Wikipedia.org

Da Vinci’s car

56. Leonardo da Vinci invented the first car in 1478 on paper. In 2004, a replica of the car was crafted and was kept in the Institute and Museum of the history of Science in Florence, Italy.

First four wheel drive

57. In 1940, the first four-wheel drive car for the U.S. military was produced. It was called the Jeep.

A law in Wisconsin

58. In 1962, the use of seat belt became a law in Wisconsin. Seat belts save one life every six minutes.

Safety first

59. Airbags were introduced as a safety measure in 1974.

60. In 1997, the first Toyota Prius was sold in Japan.

Ferrari 458 Spider at the AutoRAI 2015. Interesting facts about Cars:
Ferrari 458 Spider at the AutoRAI 2015.

The most accident prone car

61. According to the cars.com, the Ferrari 458 Spider, 563 is the most accident-prone car in the world. And the least accident prone-vehicle according to the website is the Ford F-150 SuperCrew, 42.

62. Toyota Motor Corp. is the world’s biggest automobile company. It is also the world’s richest car manufacturing company.

The longest car in the world

63. The title for the longest car in the world is taken by a custom-built limousine by California car guru Jay Ohrberg. The car is 100 meters long and is recorded by the Guinness World Records as the longest car ever built in the world. Surprisingly, the car has a swimming pool and a helicopter pad as well.

64. Tata Nano, manufactured by the Indian automotive giant Tata Motors, is the world’s cheapest car. It is a rear wheel drive car and can run at a top speed of 105 km per hour.

Tata Nano from Tata Motors India
Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car. Image source – Wikipedia.org

65. Cars were a horseless carriage when they were built for the first time in 1895.

66. Did you know that an average American car contains 55 pounds of copper wiring? And an electric car can have three times this amount of copper in them.

Other interesting facts about cars

67. Interestingly, more than a 100 million lines of code is used to program the computer system used in a Bentley Bentayga.

68. Did you know that San Marino with 1263 cars per 1,000 inhabitants tops the list of the countries with most cars per 1,000 people, followed by Monaco and the United States (est. 2014)?

69. Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Honda, and Ford are among the world’s most valued car brands.

Smoke from a car exhaust pipe. car facts

70. According to the EPA, in the U.S., 75% of Carbon Monoxide emissions come from automobiles.

71. Dubai has the world’s fastest police car (certified by Guinness World Records). It is a Bugatti Veyron — just one of its 14-strong fleet of super cars. The car uses a 16-cylinder engine which produces 1,000 horsepower. The car has a staggering top speed of 253 mph (407 km/h) and the ability to climb from 0 to 60 mph in just two and a half seconds.

72. The 1994 Honda Accord is the most stolen car in the history of the U.S.

73. According to the data analyzed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, crashes involving male drivers often are more severe than those involving female drivers. And many more men than women die each year in motor vehicle crashes.

74. Disputes with fixed objects and noncollisions accounted for only 18 percent of all crashes, but they accounted for 45 percent of fatal crashes (2010). Learn more stats from the National Highway Transport Safety Administration.

VW Polo
VW Polo. Photo: Fingerhut / Shutterstock.com

75. Did you ever wonder how the names of some of the Volkswagen cars were coined? The company uses the various types of winds for the purpose. For example, the Jetta means “jet stream”, the Passat means “trade winds”, and the Polo means “Polar Winds.”

76. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), drivers ages 16-19 are three times more likely to crash than drivers over 20.

77. In 2015/16, the police recorded 14,602 carjacking incidents in South Africa, a 14.3% increase from the previous year. On average, 40 cars were hijacked per day.

78. Did you know that Ferrari makes just 14 cars a day and that the automotive giant Toyota makes 13,000 units every day?

79. According to a source, the world’s first non-fatal automobile accident happened with James Lambert while he was driving in his single-cylinder gasoline automobile, in 1891 in Ohio City, Ohio. The injuries, however, were minor.

80. According to a source, Hong Kong has more Rolls-Royce cars per capita than any other country in the world.

81. Carjacking in South Africa is very common. Hence, BMW cars are fitted with flamethrowers on the side to avert the theft.

82. In Japan, there are different stickers which are used on the cars to identify the driving capabilities and experience of a car’s driver. These stickers help other car drivers to be a little more patient when driving around such cars.

83. The automobile is the world’s most recycled product. Interesting isn’t it!

84. Interestingly, higher speed limits or no speed limit does not have any correlation to people driving faster.

Car key with remote.
Interesting facts about cars: A car key with a remote controller.

85. If a car remote’s button is pressed 256 times consecutively when the car is out of range, the remote will become dysfunctional as it will lose its sync with the car.

86. There is a small triangle icon next to the fuel icon on the dashboard of a car. This little triangular icon helps identify the side on which the gas door is. In older cars, this icon may not be present but it is available in most of the new generation cars.

87. The world’s first ever speeding ticket was received by Walter Arnold when he was driving at four times the allowed speed – 2 miles per hour. This happened on January 28th, 1896 in Paddock Wood, Kent in England.

Los Angeles Police Department Police officer issuing a driver with a citation (ticket) for driving offences.. facts about cars 2020
Los Angeles Police Department Police officer issuing a driver with a citation (ticket) for driving offences.

88. One of the highest ever speeding ticket was handed over to a Swedish man in Switzerland for clocking at 180 miles per hour. The ticket cost him around £538,000. The speeding ticket in Switzerland is calculated based on the income of the offender. And indeed he must be a wealthy man to have been handed over such a hefty fine.

89. Irvin Gordon from the United States is the person who has achieved the highest vehicle mileage ever in his 1966 Volvo 1800S. Driving his car on a daily basis, he covers (85,000–100,000 miles) per year. By 1 May 2014, he had driven 3,039,122 miles. Now that is the equivalent of nearly 120 complete circumnavigations of the planet.

90. The world’s lowest street-legal car at just 19 inches high was built by Perry Watkins of Buckinghamshire, England. The flatmobile has a ground clearance of just 2 inches.

91. J Frank Duryea and Charles E Duryea are credited as being the first gasoline-powered commercial car manufacturers in the United States.

92. The British traffic police carry teddy bears among their equipment to comfort children after a road mishap.

93. The late M. Allen Swift of West Hartford, Connecticut, owned the 1928 Phantom I, S273 FP for 77 years. The car was gifted to him by his father on his 26th birthday. M. Allen Swift is credited with owning his 1928 Rolls-Royce longer than any other Rolls owner.

94. Opened in 1907, Brooklands, 2.75 miles long, was the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit.

95. The first Japanese car sold in the U.K was a Daihatsu Compagno.

96. Did you know that 16% of all car owners never wash their cars?

97. According to a source, London is the most expensive city in the world to park a car.

98. It is illegal to slam a car door in Switzerland after 10 PM. This law is just about not disturbing other people from the sound of the cars door closing.

Interesting facts about car brands and their famous logos

Toyota logo
Toyota logo. Photo: Oliver Hoffmann / Shutterstock.com

99. Did you know the meaning behind some of the famous car logos? Let’s consider Toyota’s logo for example. The company’s logo has three overlapping ovals. The inner two ovals form a stylized T and a steering wheel. The outer most oval represents the world embracing Toyota.

100. Can you figure out the name of the automobile company that has four overlapping rings? You guessed it right, it is Audi. The company’s logo has a set of four overlapping rings that depict the four companies the names of the four original companies that Audi is formed from. Earlier they used to have the name of the individual company’s name in the ring but that has disappeared in the last few years.

Mercedes-Benz emblem logo.
Mercedes-Benz emblem logo. Photo: olgaru79 / Shutterstock.com

101. The iconic three-pointed star of Mercedes-Benz is a representation of the company’s dominance in three places: the sea, air, and land.

Classic Ferrari logo. Interesting facts about Cars.
Classic Ferrari logo Photo: Roberto Lusso / Shutterstock.com

102. Another impressive car logo which has drooled the hearts of millions of people globally is the Ferrari logo. The horse emblem with a bright yellow color in the background came to existence when Enzo Ferrari was asked to paint a prancing horse on his vehicles to honor fighter pilot and World War I hero Count Francesco Barraca, who painted a similar horse on his plane.