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A favourite assassination method of [[The Mafia|mobsters]] and [[Spy FiFiction|spies]] alike is to hook up a bomb to the ignition switch of a car, so that it will lie dormant until some poor soul starts it.

While the intended target is, naturally, the car's owner, this'''External tropeCombustion''' is the number one killer of [[Disposable Pilot|chauffeurs]], valets and helpful [[Disposable Women]] - which occasionally raises the [[Fridge Logic]] of why you would put an ignition-triggered explosive in a chauffeured car in the first place...

There is an interesting case of [[The Law of Conservation of Detail]] attached to this tropeform of [[Vehicular Sabotage]]. In normal circumstances, little to no screentime is devoted to a character walking to their car or starting it. Hence, whenever this ''does'' happen - especially if you see a close-up of the key - the more [[Genre Savvy]] viewer probably has a [[Oh Crap|distinctly uneasy feeling in his stomach]]. Wait for it... three... two... one... [[Incredibly Lame Pun|ignition!]] Another dead giveaway is if the car is a gift from someone the recipient [[Big Bad Friend|really shouldn't trust]].

A subtrope of [[Vehicular Sabotage]]. See [[Every Car Is a Pinto]] for cars blowing up [[Rule of Cool|that have no reason to]]. [[I Thought It Meant|Has nothing to do with]] steam engines and Stirling engines, which really do work by "external combustion".

* At the beginning ofIn [[The Eighties|1982]], a remote starter was still a mail-order novelty that might turn up in mail-order housesadverts in the back pages of periodicals like ''Popular Science''. Even if theThe blueprints had existed for at least twenty years, yet no one knew why they "needed" one. In an attempt to be clever, one advertiser promoted a "Remote Bomb Igniter" — finally, something for our gangster customers, long neglected as the gadgetry vendors tended to other clients. No more sending fearful, hapless underlings to "go start the car" (and possibly get blown away in the style of ''[[The Godfather]]''): just detonate the vehicle remotely and business continues as usual.<!-- The Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi on August 5, 1982 notes an advertisement in the June issue of Popular Science for "a Remote Bomb Igniter" but the original's not online. A Nov 1962 ad for a $1 set of blueprints, [[Played Straight]], is archived.-->

* In the [[Batman]] ''[[Knightfall]]'' saga, a villain has stolen the Batmobile. Batman gets infinds the car, startsand gets in to start it, and kaboom! Cut to Robin screaming, whenfollowed by Batman walks byreappearing and sayssaying he got out just in time, realizing it was booby-trapped, "[[Properly Paranoid|because that's what I would have done]]."

* In an example so famous it could be the [[Trope Codifier]], Michael's Italian wife Apollonia Vitelli in ''[[The Godfather]]'' decides to bring the car around for him, and... Oops[[Captain Obvious|well...]]

* [[Subverted Trope]] with a side order of [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] in the film version of ''[[The Sum of All Fears]]''. Dressler has his bodyguard start the car first, as he's savvy enough to know people like him get offed this way. After a tense moment, the car starts just fine. When Dressler (who was established early in the film to be a chain smoker) pushes in the car's cigarette lighter, it explodes as soon as the lighter pops back up. The bodyguard who started the car survives.

* Parodied in ''[[Film/Mafia!|Mafia!]]'' (thewhere [[Jay Mohr comedy), where Mohr]]'s character is in the car when this happens. He survives, but loses most of his skin in the accident (leading to a major [[Squick]] moment when he eats a tangerine, leading to a multiple [[Vomit Indiscretion Shot]]). By the time {{spoiler|he meets up with his wife again}}, he only has a small bandage on his cheek. When he is asked what happened, he replies, [[Unexplained Recovery|"Car exploded."]]

* [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] in the 1970s had a car that was boobytrapped as an alarm. A car thief jimmied the lock, and the car exploded.{{context|which film?}}

* One of Darkman's allies is killed this way in ''[[Darkman]] II]]''.

** It isn't the first time someone's tried to use a car bomb on him—theThe first movie has [[The Dragon]] attempting to get rid of him with a bomb in a suitcase, resulting in his car going kaboom.

* In the original version of [[The Mechanic]], {{spoiler|1=McKenna gets into his car at the end of the film, realising too late it was rigged to explode by Bishop, who knew that McKenna would eventually kill him}}.

== [[Live -Action TV]] ==

* The [[Mike Davis]] essay, '[https://web.archive.org/web/20081204203745/http://www.alternet.org/story/34862/ The Poor Man's Air Force]', explores the psychology behind car bombs.