We saw the U.S.A. in them. We drove them to the levee. We even worked on our night moves in their back seats.

For a century, Chevrolets won America's love with their safety, convenience, style and speed — even if sometimes they were clunky, or had problems with rust or their rear suspensions.

Chevy, which lays claim to being the top-selling auto brand of all time, celebrated its 100th birthday Thursday.

For most of its life, Chevy stayed a fender ahead of the competition by bringing innovations like all-steel bodies, automatic shifting, electric headlamps and power steering to regular folks at a low cost.

Chevy also embedded itself in American culture, sometimes changing it by knowing what people wanted to drive before they did. Snappy jingles and slogans dominated radio and television, and bands mentioned Chevys in more than 700 songs. No other automotive brand has come close to the adoration that Chevy won from customers, especially in the 1950s and '60s.

“The American car from the mid-1930s to the end of the '60s was a Chevrolet,” said John Heitmann, an automotive history professor at the University of Dayton and author of a book about the automobile's impact on American life. “It was the car of the aspiring American lower and middle classes for a long period.”

On the way to selling more than 204 million cars and trucks, Chevy invented the sport utility vehicle and an electric car with a generator on board to keep it going when the batteries die.

But it also helped ruin General Motors's reputation for many. In the 1970s, it began cranking out rust-prone, nondescript cars with gremlin-infested motors and transmissions. Now it's in the midst of a comeback, selling better-quality vehicles as a global brand with 60 percent of its sales coming outside the United States.

Chevrolet Motor was launched on Nov 3, 1911, in Detroit when Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss-born race car driver and engineer, joined ousted GM founder William “Billy” Durant to start a new brand.

Their first car was the stylish and speedy Series C “Classic Six.” It had a powerful six-cylinder engine at a time when most cars had only four. And it came with an electric starter and headlamps, which were a rarity. But at $2,150, it was out of reach for most people.

Their next car, the “Little,” was smaller and less-expensive, with a reliable four-cylinder engine. It was far more successful.

But the founders clashed over the future of the company. Chevrolet wanted to pursue his dream of building high-performance cars, while Durant was determined to cater to the masses. In 1915, Durant bought out Chevrolet, who returned to auto racing.

A year after Chevrolet's departure, the company sold about 70,000 cars, giving Durant enough cash to take control of GM. He later made Chevy a separate division of the company.

While Fords were made of wood and canvas, Chevys were steel, giving drivers more comfort and safety. Chevy had independent suspensions for each wheel that made cars ride and handle better. And it mass-produced modern hydraulic brakes, which stopped cars with less effort and didn't pull to one side like the mechanical brakes used by Ford, according to Heitmann.

By 1927, Chevy overtook Ford as the country's most popular brand, selling more than 1 million cars that year.

Through a combination of innovation and affordability, Chevy was the top U.S. brand for 52 of the next 83 years.

In 1950, Chevy became the first low-priced brand with an automatic transmission. But while most Chevys were practical, cheap and cost little to maintain, these vehicles also lacked a stylistic distinction from other brands.

That all changed in 1955, when Legendary GM design head Harley Earl created a car known for its beauty and speed. The Bel Air had chrome accents and was powered by a small, V-8 engine. For those who couldn't afford a Bel Air, Chevy made plainer, low-cost versions, the 210 and the 150.

Through Earl, Chevy gave cars personalities, and made style as important as mechanics. The Bel Air was among the first car models that could be customized. Two-tone paint, four-barrel carburetors and AM radios with rear speakers were all available — for a price.

Chevy's timing was good. The Bel Air hit the marketplace in the flush years after World War II, just as American culture was becoming more car-centric.

“Because of its design, it really woke up the culture,” said Jim Mattison, a Chevrolet sales executive in the 1960s who often speaks about the brand's history.

Chevy sold 1.49 million or more of the cars from 1955 through 1957, the period that many consider GM's finest.

As a 17-year-old high school student in South St. Paul, Minn., Kirby Lawrence borrowed $2,000 to buy a 210 hardtop and repaid the loan with the money he earned working at his father's plumbing business.

“It was the most powerful thing around, and it was very reasonably priced,” said Lawrence, now 74 and the historian for a Minnesota-based club called Chevy's Best, made up mainly of people who have restored 1955-57 Chevys.

As the cars caught on, Chevy's advertising did, too. The “Dinah Shore Chevy Show” made its television debut in 1956, featuring Shore singing “See the USA in your Chevrolet” at the end of every one-hour show. Chevy used the song in its ads after the show ended in 1963. The ads got even bigger as Chevy sponsored singer Pat Boone's variety show and the popular western series “Bonanza.”

But in the mid-'60s, Chevy's hot streak went cold.

Safety problems surfaced with the Corvair, a compact car with the engine in the rear, a feature previously found only in Volkswagens and exotic race cars. On early models, the suspension couldn't handle the rear weight, and the car could spin out of control. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader publicized its problems in his book “Unsafe at any Speed.”

Ten of the most well-known and influential Chevrolet vehicles:• 1916 Chevrolet 490: The first model intended to compete head-to-head with the Ford Model T. Name came from the $490 base price, which was $5 less than the Model T.• 1935 Chevrolet Suburban Carryall: Forerunner to the modern SUV, with a station wagon body on a half-ton truck chassis.• 1948 Chevrolet Series 3100 Pickup: Set the stage for Chevrolet’s modern pickups by introducing higher levels of comfort, including a bench seat and AM radio.• 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe: Redesigned Bel Air, with a small V-8 engine, made luxury affordable to the masses. The two-toned design sparked a golden age of American car styling. The 1957 Bel Air, with its more pronounced fins, became an icon of automotive design.• 1961 Impala SS: Chevrolet’s first “SS,” or Super Sport, car helped kick off the muscle car era. Its 360-horsepower, 409 V-8 engine inspired the Beach Boys’ hit song “409.”• 1963 Corvette Sting Ray: One of the most desirable collector cars because of the split rear window, which was only offered in 1963. The Sting Ray continues to influence Corvette design.• 1967 Camaro: Chevrolet’s muscle-car answer to the Ford Mustang, a great rivalry that continues to this day.• 1989 Chevrolet C/K Pickup: The solid, clean styling made them a huge seller, for truck drivers and weekend warriors alike. It continues to influence GM pickup design.• 1995 Chevrolet Tahoe SUV: A midsize SUV that accelerated the SUV boom, combining the comforts of a luxury car with the hauling and towing capabilities of a truck. It was an instant hit, with nearly 81,000 sold in the first year.• 2011 Chevrolet Volt: A revolutionary electric vehicle with a small gas engine that kicks in when the battery stops. GM brought it to market in 2010 despite a trip through bankruptcy court the year before.