The Alleged Car: Difference between revisions

== Comics ==

* Archie Andrews' jalopy in ''[[Archie Comics]]''. Witness what happens when Archie tries to get it insured:

'''Archie''': Some of it dates back to 1926! }}

:: Throughout its [[Long Runner|very long run]], they had to constantly replace the base car as the car starts to become a classic or an an antique -- something that actually had some worth.

== Fan Works ==

* The [[Ruritania|Transbelvian]] Belv in [[Eyrie Productions Unlimited]]'s ''[[Street Fighter]]''/[[Mega Crossover|whole bunch of other stuff]] fic ''Warrior's Legacy''. The author/narrator describes it quite well:

* Non-car example: [[Midnight Green|Midnight Green's]] dilapidated cart that he quite happily smashes into a tree.

 

== Films -- Animated ==

* In ''[[Madagascar]] 2'' the state of the plane the Penguin Commandos and the Zoo animals attempt to fly back to New York in is so bad that one of the signs it is not working is that its engine is ''no longer on fire''. It also comes with several skeletons on board.

* The last song heard in ''[[The Brave Little Toaster]]'' is actually sung by thousands of Alleged Cars, all of them are constantly waiting for them to be picked up one by one by the junkyard magnet and [[Nightmare Fuel|be crushed to death by the car crusher]] at the end of [[Conveyor Belt of Doom|a conveyor belt.]] Some of the cars include:

** A male blue car

'''Chorus''': Worthless... }}

** A [[Pink Girl, Blue Boy|female pink]] convertible

Don't have the heart to live in the fast lane all that is past and gone... (crunch) }}

** Two cars stacked on top of each other

'''Chorus''': Worthless, worthless, worthless... }}

** A red sports car from Kansas City, MO

'''Chorus''': Worthless... }}

** An Indianapolis 500 racing car

So much for fortune and fame... (crunch) }}

** A Texan wedding car

He kept forgetting, his loneliness letting his thoughts turn to home and we turned... (crunch) }}

** A hearse (crushed to death at the same time as the aforementioned wedding car)

'''Chorus''': Worthless... }}

** A holiday bus with a surfboard on her roof

(instrumental) }}

** A green Native American pickup truck (who actually ''COMMITS SUICIDE'' by driving into the car crusher instead of waiting for the magnet unlike everyone else!)

"You're worthless..." (crunch) }}

* ''[[Cars]]'':

== Films -- Live Action ==

* Nick's Yugo Jessie in ''[[Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist]]''.

* Inspector Clouseau's car in ''Revenge of The [[Pink Panther]]''. It looks like a pimped-up Batmobile, but falls apart in the driveway.

* ''Smoke Signals'' has one that's permanently stuck in reverse and thus driven backwards everywhere. According to the makers, this is actually [[Truth in Television]] on some Indian reservations.

* The title character's car from ''[[Uncle Buck]]''. It lets out a boom like a high powered rifle when the gas pedal is pressed and leaves a smokescreen the size of Kansas in its trail.

* In the Hallmark movie ''Ice Dreams'' the main character has one of these.

'''Amy's Mom''': It's not a car, dear, it's a casualty. }}

* Ralphie's Old Man's 1937 Oldsmobile in ''[[A Christmas Story]]''.

* "How do you get a Yugo up to 60 mph? Push it off a cliff."

* Comedian [[Lewis Black]] had his rental Plymouth Horizon stolen. When he filed a police report, they suggested the thief took it for a joyride.

:: He also mentioned "never [having] driven a car that's aqua."

* [[German Humour|Trabi jokes]]. See the [[Real Life]] section.

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' has Harry Dresden's Beetle, complete with a cute nickname: [[Shout-Out|The Blue Beetle]]. He can't drive anything else because magic screws up modern technology. Although this is never explicitly stated, it's [[Fridge Logic|possible]] that one of the reasons he's driving a Volkswagen instead of any other random older car is that the engine is farther away from him. Plus, Harry has stated that his mechanic can keep the Beetle running eight or nine days out of ten, which, as far as Harry's [[Walking Techbane]] status goes, makes the mechanic a miracle worker. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, miracles have limits, and being compacted into a small ball is the Beetle's limit...}}

* ''[[Discworld]]'': Granny Weatherwax has the Alleged [[Flying Broomstick]].

* [[Dave Barry]] covers this a few times:

** In the column "Lemon Harangue", he talks about his father's unerringly awful car buying instincts:

** In ''Dave Barry Does Japan", he mentions that his own first new car was a Chevrolet Vega, which was "made of compressed rust".

* In Markus Zusak's ''The Messenger'', one of the narrator's friends owns a "shitbox blue Ford" of which he is intensely proud and protective - he goes berserk if anyone brings up its shortcomings within his earshot, even at a police officer who told him it wasn't roadworthy. He ''claims'' it's an antique, it appears to made from rust, it has a 0.5 percent chance of starting the first time you turn the key, it's often propped by bricks because the handbrake is broken, any replacement part would be worth more than the rest of the car itself put together, and it foils a bank robbery in the opening chapter because [[Too Dumb to Live|the robber chose it as his getaway vehicle]] and [[Crowning Moment of Funny|couldn't get it to start before the police arrived]].

* The protagonist of Laurie Halse Anderson's ''Catalyst'' has a Yugo [[I Call It Vera|named Bert]], which she describes as "a tissue box on wheels with a bulimic hunger for motor oil."

* The Doctor from ''[[Doctor Who]]'' apparently has a particular affection for this trope. In the [[Eighth Doctor Adventures]] novels, he has a Trabant, as featured in the [[Real Life]] section of this trope page. Even better: he drives it during his stint as a single father and wealthy business consultant, working with the kind of people who drive "Porsches and BMWs", next to which the Trabant looks like "an old drunk uncle at a wedding". He keeps a ton of books in it and it often stalls (in one scene, his would-be-love interest is foiled by his [[Oblivious to Love|generally oblivious personality]] and the fact he's preoccupied by trying to get the car to start), but at the end it has its own little [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when the Doctor needs to go rescue {{spoiler|his daughter from being whisked off the planet}}:

* [[Badass Normal|Genevive Robles]] from ''[[Bystander (Literature)|Bystander]]'' by Luke Green has her [http://thrythlind.deviantart.com/art/Genevive-Roble-s-Termite-194378072 Termite], which is a discontinued model from 2011 in a story set in 2035. No parts are made for it so it consumes a lot of cash and paperwork to keep operational, especially given that over the course of the book it's in an earthquake and a blizzard, and narrowly misses being crushed by a flying hydraulic arm from a garbage truck. It is also stated to have an air conditioner that smells like ozone; at least once, Lucretia took a ride in it after being drunk and stuck in garbage truck, which couldn't have helped the smell.

* In the early ''[[Spenser]]'' detective novels, Spenser drives several of these. The first was a 1968 Chevy convertible in such awful condition that everyone he meets remarks on it. He justifies keeping it by saying that if it gets damaged in the line of duty, he doesn't care all that much. He later wrecks a Subaru somewhere near the Charles River locks. By the 1990s, he's switched to something better, but he still loses cars with some frequency after that, and implies he's never too attached to them.

** Oliver's car breaking down was the subject of at least one episode, in which Mrs. Douglas used her pancake batter to fix a blown head gasket, something of a great feat, considering her knowledge of cars was limited to referring to the gear shifter as a "pernundel" (because of the order of gears: P R N D L).

* Steve Urkel's Isetta "microcar" on ''[[Family Matters]]''

* One episode of ''[[Michael Palin]]'s New Europe'' had him take a tour of Nowa Huta (a Communist-built industrial suburb of Krakow) in an [[East Germany|East German]] Trabant, a [[Real Life]] embodiment of this trope.

* ''[[Pimp My Ride]]'' is entirely about turning an Alleged Car into a [[Cool Car]].

* In one episode of ''[[Chuck]]'', Morgan buys a DeLorean with a stuck passenger door that cannot go over 22 miles per hour. Sort of a subversion in that Morgan considers it to be a [[Cool Car]], and even gets a [[Vanity License Plate]] for it.

* The Dodge in ''[[Married... with Children]]''. In the episode "Take My Wife, Please":

'''Cowboy:''' No. I'm just sorry about. }}

** In truth, the car was actually a Plymouth Duster, an pretty desirable car.

* [[Satan]] gives Ezekiel Stone one of these in one episode of ''[[Brimstone (TV series)|Brimstone]]''. At the end of the episode Ezekiel {{spoiler|realises that it's the second damned soul Satan told him to reclaim that week, and shoots its "eyes" (headlights) out to send it back to Hell}}.

** Gives us this lovely exchange:

'''Zeke Stone:''' The wheels are great. The car on top of 'em's crap. }}

* ''[[Trailer Park Boys]]'':

* The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv0onXhyLlE famous scene] in the ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'' episode "Gourmet Night" where Basil Fawlty's car breaks down in the middle of the road. He then starts shouting at the car, kicks it and runs offscreen... Only to return a few seconds later with a ''tree branch'' to start hitting the car out of frustration. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|One of the funniest and most memorable moments of the series]] and, arguably, British [[Sitcom]] history.

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', Time Lords other than the Doctor see the TARDIS as one of these.

* The Ghostmobile MK-I as seen in ''The Ghost Busters''. It's a 1929 Willys Whippet that always has something wrong with it (usually the brakes).

* Cedric's Hyundai on ''[[The Steve Harvey Show]]''. It and Steve's El Dorado are never seen in the show. With Cedric's car, it has multiple bumper stickers on it to hold the body up and cover up its many dents, it frequently breaks down because Cedric tries to listen to the radio while he drives, and once it would not start simply because Cedric rolled the windows down. When he and Lovita are expecting their baby, she implors him to sell it but in the end, he keeps it and Lovita buys a used minivan.

* The Coup recorded a fantastic inversion of the Cruising In My Caddy type of song with Cars And Shoes, which lists off a series of increasingly terrible cars that they have owned, making the point that they're crap, but still better than walking.

* "Two Ton Paperweight" by Psychostick.

You, '''STUPID CAR!!''''' }}

* "My Chevette" by Audio Adrenaline.

* Bottle Rockets' ''1000 Dollar Car'' suggests you buy a good guitar instead, it'll take you farther.

* Then there's the parody Christmas Carol based on "Jingle Bells", [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50IgzksUqpQ "Rusty Chevrolet"] by [[Da Yoopers]].

''I wonder what's the joke?'' }}

* "500 (Shake baby shake)" by Lush, on the venerable Fiat Topolino:

I can't be with you so I'm at the railway station'' }}

* And then there's Jonathan Richman's Dodge Veg-O-Matic:

Well it doesn't go nowhere, it just stays all alone.'' }}

* Arrogant Worms's song "Car Full of Pain" -- complete with a verse describing how it is literally possessed by the Legions of Hell.

* The guys at [[Car Talk]] have been collecting these for some time now. [http://www.shamelesscommerce.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ROADSONGS Have a look.]

* The tour bus in [[Eric Bogle]]'s "Eric and the Informers":

Which was everywhere and often.'' }}

* Clare & The Reasons' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXWbNqSbOYI "Can Your Car Do That? I Don't Think So"]

* "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong with the Radio" by Aaron Tippin. The car's a wreck, but the radio works perfectly.

But there ain't nothin' wrong with the radio'' }}

* "Teardrops on My Old Car", a parody of [[Taylor Swift]]'s "Teardrops on My Guitar. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6aIo1q-RF0\]

* ''One Piece At A Time'' by [[Johnny Cash]] is a variation: He's put together a Cadillac by collecting parts over more than a decade. The car looks very strange by the time he's done; how it ''runs'' is not stated.

* The 1957 Chevy pickup truck from the C.W. McCall song (which is really more of recitation set to music) "Classified":

* The second verse of Billy Falcon's "Power Windows" is dedicated to one of these. The song goes on to say the car's owner doesn't need a [[Cool Car]] because he's found the [[Power of Love]].

* Jim White's "Corvair" is something of a deconstruction.

It's no longer a car. }}

* Roberto Carlos' "Calhambeque" is about a man that gets an Alleged Car as a replacement after he sends his car to the repairshop, but ends up keeping the Alleged Car in lieu of the "normal" car.

* The second line in "Beverly Hills" by [[Weezer]].

* The popular Tex-Mex singer, [[Selena]] had a song named 'Carcacha' (mexican word to refer to a run-down car, is somewhat offensive), the lyrics are entirely about a girl's boyfriend's car, which is the quintessence of the trope.

** The chorus thranslates roughly to:

carcacha, bit by bit. Please don't leave us! }}

 

== Web Animation ==

* Parodied with Strong Bad's car, the [[wikipedia:AMC Gremlin|Gremlin]], in ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', which doesn't even seem to have an engine but is treated as a working car by its owner anyway.

 

 

* ''[[Project 0]]'': Owen doesn't think too highly of the Buggy, but it's Aatu's vehicle of choice. [[Free-Range Children|But, as a bunch of 13 year olds,]] they're lucky to have a car at all.

* In ''[[Freefall]]'', the Savage Chicken starts out as an Alleged Spaceship. Florence actually manages to make it spaceworthy. How terrible is it? Well, let's let [http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff300/fv00298.htm the spaceport air traffic controllers explain]:

"Still too expensive. The computer will only authorize up to spitwads." }}

:: Sam and Helix did manage to get it off the ground by themselves, an act they're very proud of. Unfortunately, the parade committee forced them to return the balloons shortly thereafter.

* In ''[[Scary Go Round]]'', Esther de Groot drives [http://www.scarygoround.com/sgr/ar.php?date=20080916 a car like this].

* In ''[[Girl Genius]]'', one strip involves Agatha receiving [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050328 a...rather poorly maintained] walking house.

* Eric Remington's, as seen in [http://bukucomics.com/loserz/go/200 this strip] of ''[[Loserz]]''.

** Homer's regular car (which Homer says it was made in Guatemala, but his mechanic states it was manufactured in Croatia from recycled Soviet tanks) does his job, but breaks up quite often (mostly because of [[Drives Like Crazy|who drives it]]).

** Ned Flanders' Geo.

'''Ned''': [[Take That|"I CAN'T, IT'S A GEO!"]] }}

* ''[[Futurama]]'':

** There's this jewel:

** Also in "Bendin' In The Wind" Fry finds an old VW dug up van with corpses in it.

'''Fry:''' Yeah yeah, I've gotten used cars before. }}

* ''[[Kim Possible]]'' - The Roth SL Coupe (a.k.a. 'the Sloth') Kim's father gives her in the episode "Car Alarm"... before the tweebs soup it up. Ron's scooter definitely qualifies as The Alleged Motorcycle.

* The five-part ''[[DuckTales]]'' that introduces Gizmoduck sees Scrooge and Launchpad acquire an alleged ''spaceship''.

* In ''[[Dan Vs.]]'', nine times out of ten, the reason for Dan seeking revenge is due to something happening to his car, which is probably how it got to be in the condition it's in. People tend to assume it's been abandoned, and when it was accidentally donated to the Salvation Armed Forces, the volunteer responsible told him, "In my defense, no one would want to keep a vehicle like that."

'''Dan:''' Yes! That's the one! }}

* Stanley Ipkiss's indiscriminate-model clunker, complete with a portable driver's side door, from [[The Mask]].