The Alleged Car: Difference between revisions

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

{{quote|''For example, my father was one of the very few Americans who bought the Hillman Minx, a wart-shaped British car with the same rakish, sporty appeal as a municipal parking garage but not as much pickup. Our Minx also had a Surprise Option Feature whereby the steering mechanism would disconnect itself at random moments, so you'd suddenly discover that you could spin the wheel all the way around in a playful circle without having any effect whatsoever on the front wheels... You don't see many Minxes around anymore, probably because the factory was bombed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.''}}

* 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]].

* [[Stephen King]]'s ''[[Cujo]]'' has a woman and her son trapped in one of these by a rabid Saint Bernard dog.

* Jen from ''[[The Cornersville Trace Mythos|Extraordinary*]]'' has a car that stalls all the time, usually at the worst moments.

* The March 1980 edition of Australian car magazine ''Wheels'' [http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Wheels_magazine/id/1997816 controversially declared] "No Car of the Year" for 1979, with the front cover featuring a giant lemon on four wheels. This prompted Ford Australia to hit back with an advertisement for its then-latest model Falcon, depicting a page full of literal lemons with popular car brands printed on them and declaring, "[[When Life Gives You Lemons|There are times when being a lemon is not a bitter experience at all]]". ''Wheels'' also declared "No Car of the Year" in 1972 and 1986.

 

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