We have recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of Porsche’s 911, and this year – April in fact – Ford’s Mustang will turn the same age. The Suburban has been part of Chevy’s model mix for an astounding 81 years. These are models that have been around seemingly forever, and they are each an indelible part of the automotive landscape. Would that landscape be irreparably diminished should any one of these stalwarts go extinct?

Consider if you will certain long-lived nameplates that have gone the way of Elvis – Ford’s Thunderbird, Lincoln’s Continental, Citroën’s Deux Chevaux, or perhaps most notably, the rear-engine VW Type 1 – do you miss them? Sure, there are plenty of each still plying the globe, but would the world’s model mix be improved should they, or their modern incarnations, still exist?

That of course is the case with the 911, the Mustang, and to a certain extent the Volkswagen Beetle, although that last one’s kind of a stretch considering which end its engine presently resides. These models are still around, continuing to imbue their parent marque with their intrinsic equity, and none seems to be going anywhere anytime soon. But if one or more of them did, which one do you think would give you the biggest sad?

Image source: ©2014 Hooniverse/Robert Emslie, All Rights Reserved