The past 25 years have given us a lot to look back on. When the 21st century began, SUVs weren't a thing, Ford had just bought Land Rover and Tesla had yet to be created because the idea of driving an EV remained a distant future fantasy.

Our goal here was to pick the 25 cars that have defined the first 25 years of the 21st century. Not the best, fastest or biggest-selling - instead, these are the most significant machines. We have picked one car for each year, and we set a rule that each brand can only feature once.

Scroll through the gallery to see our choices, in chronological order: