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{{trope}}
{{quote|"Gee, Drew, I'm so sorry for you. At daytime you're a loving boyfriend, but at night you race in a great metal penis"
"No, Mimi, [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|THAT'S. A. CORVETTE]]... The penis's made of fiberglass".
|''[[The Drew Carey Show]]''}}
{{quote|"Uh, whose car is that out front?"
"''Mine''. 1970 Pontiac Firebird - the car I've always wanted, and now I have it. '''I rule!'''"
|''[[American Beauty]]''}}
This car is probably red, usually a convertible, always expensive and zippy, and necessarily driven by a middle-aged man. If he's been around for a while, this will be the first time he's shown any tendency to care about what he drives. It is almost always [[Compensating for Something]].
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Sometimes a motorcycle can fill the same function.
Very often becomes [[The Precious Precious Car]]. Compare [[Cool Car]] (which generally comes with more [[The Middleman|weapons and gadgets and things]]). Contrast [[The Alleged Car]]. Often referred to as a "Midlife Chrysler." Almost ''always'' a symptom of a [[Hollywood Midlife Crisis]].
[[Truth in Television]] when you're not lucky enough to have been born wealthy: it takes ''time'' to amass enough money for a [[Cool Car]].
{{examples}}
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* The film ''[[American Beauty]]'' has one of these, but it's a classic muscle-car. In addition, he's not compensating for something, but rather pissing off [[Stepford Smiler|his wife]] (who would later interrupt their first intimate encounter in years because she was afraid he would spill beer on her sofa).
* Albeit it wasn't
== [[Literature]] ==
* One of the more unpleasant characters in ''[[Cujo]]'' by [[Stephen King]] dubs this "sports car menopause".
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Giles replaces [[The Alleged Car]] with one (a red, BMW M3 convertable) at the beginning of season 5 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. He claims it "seduced" him.
{{quote|
* In ''[[Leverage]]'', the team asks Nate if he's buying a
* A female example: Joanna Clore in ''[[Green Wing]]'' asks a salesman which of two cars will make her look younger: the salesman deadpans, "Neither. They are just cars."
* ''[[Friends]]'':
** Ross buys one of these. Too bad it's so small it gets stuck in the parking space. Why they couldn't have grabbed some of their [[Twenty-Four-Hour Party People]] friends and just ''carried'' the thing out is difficult to understand. He also quickly abandons the car when an old, bald gentleman shows up driving the exact same car.
{{quote|
** In an earlier episode, Ross and Monica's father mentioned buying a Porsche when he turned fifty. A few seasons later he later gave it to Monica (as an apology for using the boxes with all her childhood relics to block flooding water in order [[Skewed Priorities|to protect the car]]).
* ''[[CSI]]: Las Vegas'' has an episode with Gil Grissom acting as though he's starting to go into mid-life crisis. Brass advises him, "Buy a convertible. It's cheaper."
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* In an episode of [[The Cosby Show]], one of Cliff's friends enters a mid-life crisis after his wife divorced him for being too boring. The first thing he does is go to the car dealership and try out the fastest, most expensive car they have. By the end of the episode he decides not to buy it though.
== [[Music]] ==
* Referenced in the song "Mid Life Chrysler" by [[Collin Raye]].▼
==
* Played straight in ''[[Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories]]'', when aging crime boss Salvatore Leone shows off a "fully loaded, top of the line" sports cars to Toni Cipriani. Maria, riding shotgun, humorously responds by claiming to "smell" Salvatore's mid-life crisis. The car is later found wrecked not far from where Salvatore showed it off.▼
▲* Referenced in the song "Mid Life Chrysler" by Collin Raye.
* In ''[[Tokyo Xtreme Racer|Shutokou Battle 01]]'', there is Sanjyushi, an entire gang of middleaged men with souped up MLC cars in the Wangan area.▼
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[Fairly Oddparents]]'', Timmy's dad buys a cool car that he doesn't allow Timmy to ride in. [[Hilarity Ensues]] when Timmy wishes to be said car.
** The reason his father doesn't let him ride in the car is because {{spoiler|it's VERY lacking in safety features, and while he realizes how dumb he's being by driving it around, he wouldn't endanger his son by letting him ride in it.}} So it's kind of cute, in a weird way.
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* ''[[Family Guy]]'': Peter's car after he finds out that Chris is much larger than him in a certain... area.
** This whole sequence is a gigantic [[Lampshade Hanging]] on the [[Compensating for Something|concept]], with Peter's car being extremely phallic, him driving in and out of a tunnel repeatedly before the car gets crushed by oncoming traffic, and a group of cheerleaders giggling at him as he looks sad and mutters "Ow, my pride..."
* ''[[The Grim Adventures of Billy
* Stan's dad gets one in ''[[South Park]]'' when he and his wife divorce for the episode.
* The Finnish comedy cartoon ''[[Pasila]]'' featured a chronic speeder who drove a SUV big enough to fit another SUV in the trunk. He claims the car is not a penis extension, but constantly [[Freudian Slippery Slope|slips off the Freudian slope]] when he talks to anyone about it for any extended period of time.
* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'' - after Rusty is called "old" he gets a 1970 Corvette, frightful "mod" clothes, and a ratty-looking wig in the episode "Mid-Life Chrysalis".
* ''[[Futurama]]'': During Lrrr's midlife crisis we briefly see him trying out a small red hovercar.
▲* Played straight in ''[[Grand Theft Auto Liberty City Stories]]'', when aging crime boss Salvatore Leone shows off a "fully loaded, top of the line" sports cars to Toni Cipriani. Maria, riding shotgun, humorously responds by claiming to "smell" Salvatore's mid-life crisis. The car is later found wrecked not far from where Salvatore showed it off.
▲* In ''[[Tokyo Xtreme Racer|Shutokou Battle 01]]'', there is Sanjyushi, an entire gang of middleaged men with souped up MLC cars in the Wangan area.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Always Male]]
[[Category:Motor Vehicle Tropes]]
[[Category:Motorcycle Tropes]]
[[Category:Vehicle Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Midlife Crisis Car]]
|