Car Facts to Impress Your Friends and Family 

In Orange County, California, everybody loves cars not just because they conveniently take you everywhere but also because they look good and can add prestige and fun to your life. If you want to impress your family and friends at your next to-do, reveal these fascinating facts about the automobile straight from the Beach Boulevard of Cars in Huntington Beach. Anyone who questions the validity of these tidbits, tell them to Google it.  

1. The world’s oldest car brand isn’t Ford, which wasn’t founded until 1903. The honor goes to the French company Peugeot, which was founded by brothers Jean-Pierre and Jean-Frederic Peugeot in 1810 to run a grain mill before turning to automobiles in 1882. Perhaps if they had made more than four vehicles, that recognition would have been more noteworthy.
2. Per U.S. News and World Report, only about 18 percent of American drivers can handle a manual transmission, and only 5 percent of the cars sold in the USA have a stick shift.
3. The most expensive car ever sold at auction was a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe that sold for $142 million. The amount went to the Mercedes-Benz Fund, a global scholarship program for young people who want to make the world more sustainable.
4. The fastest production car in the world as of 2023 is the Bugatti Chiron Supersport 300+, which relies on an 8.0-liter turbocharged engine that puts out 1,600 horsepower and 1180 lb.-ft. of torque to rush from 0–60 MPH in 2.2 seconds for a top speed of 304 MPH.
5. The average age of vehicles in the USA is 12.5 years with a typical car expected to last for 200,000 miles or more. That is considered a record high, as 20 years ago that number was 9.7 years.
6. In 1939, Packard was the first auto manufacturer to add optional air conditioning to its 1940 model-year cars. About 2,000 vehicles received the bulky machinery.
7. Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, England, was the first person ever recorded to receive a speeding ticket on January 28, 1896. He drove 8 miles per hour in a 2-mile-per-hour zone and was chased for five miles by a policeman on a bicycle. He was fined one shilling plus court costs.
8. Chevy introduced the first car radio in 1922, although the government wanted to declare it illegal because it was considered a distraction. Most vehicles had this device by 1963.
9. The world’s longest highway is the Pan-American Highway which is a network of roads across the Americas. This route runs for 19,000 miles from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. It goes through 14 countries but cannot be driven without an all-terrain vehicle because of the Darien Gap, which spans 100 kilometers between Panama and Columbia.
10. Henry Ford supposedly created the phrase “tune up” from the buzzing “in tune” that the magneto ignition coils of cylinders used to make when they were adjusted correctly.
11. The first freeway in Orange County, California was the Santa Ana Freeway. Although work on this thoroughfare started in Los Angeles in 1944, it did not reach the OC until 1950, when construction continued at Buena Park. The freeway was finished in Orange County at San Clemente by 1960.