The stripped-down cop car of the Blues Brothers.
The 1920 Chevrolet Frontenac. It crashed in a race, killing Gaston Chevrolet. The Chevrolet is the only product I can think of that was named for a person who was killed while operating it.
Also, Buddy Holly’s airplane.
Another notorious (and also unknown name) auto high up on my list and probably for a lot of other people in cultural history is the car in which Isadora Duncan was driving (or passenger?) when her scarf got caught in the wheels and violent and spectacular death ensued.
I think that unusual death is particularly memorable because an important part of the revolutionary art vision of her dancing–the liberation from classical ballet and strictured female physicality–was always associated in her performances (and based on this in her private life) by billowing loose clothing, specifically scarves flung with joyous abandon.
Mercedes-Benz W31. That’s the 6-wheeled German Army staff car that Hitler used in parades.
Along those lines, I have a hard time thinking about Tesla Motors without thinking about all the dramas surrounding Elon Musk.
Come to think of it, can anyone think of Hughes H-4 Hercules “Spruce Goose” flying boat without thinking about what a nutjob Howard Hughes was?
I wouldn’t describe him as a “nutjob”, he was a brilliant engineer who suffered from severe mental illness. But yes, the H4 Hercules or “Spruce Goose” (which was not its actual material, but the name stuck) is of course always going to be associated with the drama surrounding Hughes’ personal life; and it was a one-off prototype, not a production aircraft, and it was only ever used one time, so it will always be regarded as more of an ill-fated elaborate overly-ambitious project than for its actual intended purpose.
My first reaction when I read this was “Wait, didn’t he drive a VW?” A parody has supplanted reality in my brain…
What do you mean?
Particularly when they say anything about “drinking the Kool-Aid,” since that’s literally the source of that saying.
Hummers. Not because of any notorious event, just because driving one makes you automatically a douchebag.
Howard Hughes had pretty severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and was a recluse for the last ten years of his life. The Wikipedia article about the last years of his life detail it better so I’m not going to transcribe all of it here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes#Last_years_and_death
I don’t know how realistic The Aviator is, but there’s a pretty good scene in it where Hughes, played by Leonardo Di Caprio, is stuck in a bathroom because he doesn’t want to touch the door handle after having washed his hands till they were bloody. He has this moment where he knows he’s losing it, but he can’t do anything about it. Slipping into mental illness slowly must be terrifying.
IIRC, at the time, they still thought obsessive/compulsive disorder was psychological, rather than neurological or neurochemical, so the medicines available at the time being prescribed were only making matters worse.
It’s not something we see in service today, but I’d say the B-29 Superfortress bomber pretty much always brings to mind a couple of notoriously violent events.
I couldn’t say what role OKC bombing did for Ryder, but the shift to white paint jobs took place about the same time everyone shifted to white paint jobs. A plain white finish is simpler and cheaper. And in this bottom-line driven world in which we live in, cost beats aesthetics.
If you visit Dearborn, Mich., you can see and sit in Rosa Parks’s meticulously-restored bus - and I have!: https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/316872
These don’t refer to exactly one vehicle but a class of vehicles/individuals:
The Pope (recent incarnations) and The Popemobile (all incarnations)
In LA we have Angelyne and her pink Corvette(s) with personalized license plate
Awesome username/post combo. 
Unfortunately enough for Kool-Aid, the actual drink mix used at Jonestown was Flavor Aid. Doesn’t seem to have put them out of business though.