The Alleged Car: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples}}

* The infamous "[[Thememobile|Yukarimobile]]" from ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]''. It's a miracle Yukari ''can'' [[Drives Like Crazy|drive the damn thing]] in the shape it's in. Its second appearance in the anime is suitably... ominous.

** It belongs to Yukari's parents. Presumably it looks like that because it ''is'' driven by Yukari. The way that thing gets camera treatment, it is the closest thing the series has to an outright villain. Not even Kimura-sensei is quite as traumatizing.

* Coach Yamazakura's car in ''Slow Step''. Bikes are faster and factories produce less exhaust.

* In the manga of ''[[You're Under Arrest]]'', Natsumi ends up with one of these after getting her auto license - the car had been assembled out of discarded parts from numerous stolen vehicles. Then it gets customized by Miyuki...

 

== Comics ==

'''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.

* In ''[[Sin City]]'':

** Gail has an unfortunate tendency to saddle Dwight with crappy cars when he's helping her. Once, during ''The Big Fat Kill'' she even forgot to make sure the car had enough gas to get where it was going. A similar car was given to him in ''Family Values''.

* [[Spider-Man|The Spider-Mobile]]. Unlike most examples on this page, it was actually pretty pimped out...just really uncool in being pointless (Spider-Man neither needs nor—as the arc in which the thing appeared showed—has the ability to drive a car) and corny looking. [[Dork Age|The butt of many jokes in hindsight]].

* Harold Harold's car in ''[[The Tomb of Dracula]]''.

 

== Fan Works ==

{{quote|I insist, though, that when in Transbelvia, the truly discriminating tourist is obligated to drive the national automobile, the one and only Belv. The Belv is the quintessential East European car, a tiny tin box with a two-stroke motor that sounds like a mimeograph machine on Self-Destruct and smells like a burning blackwall tire. This particular one had a four-speed manual gearbox that liked to crunch and jitter on shifts, brakes operated by cables, and no gauges that worked. }}

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

 

== Films -- Animated ==

** The villains of the sequel are all notorious "lemons", such as Gremlins or Pacers. In fact, two baddies from this film are even known as Grem and Acer! [[The Dragon]] is based on a German microcar in which passengers always face the back.

* Both vehicles in ''[[The Fox and The Hound]]'' probably qualify for this. The widow's is a really old truck, and Slade's is tempremantal after the engine gets shot full of holes by the widow.

 

== Films -- Live Action ==

* The ''[[The Blues Brothers|BluesMobile]]''.

* The minivan at the end of ''[[Project X]]'', which is missing two doors and has had most of its paint scorched off. Thomas' parents force him to drive it to school as punishment, though his friends think it looks [[Badass]].

 

== Jokes ==

* Scott Faulconbridge had a routine where he talked about his car. It was worth about twenty bucks. After he filled it with gas.

* A stock [[Borscht Belt]] joke (included in Waak's brief stand-up routine in the film ''[[Explorers]]'') is about a car called a "Rolls-Canardly" -- "It rolls down one hill and can 'ardly get up the next."

 

== Literature ==

* The March 1980 edition of Australian car magazine ''Wheels'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20131101093321/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.

 

* In ''[[The Middleman]]'', Wendy has a Hruck Bugbear, which is made in the Balkans and described as "a poor man's Yugo". Her soon-to-be boyfriend Tyler likes it, but he seems to be the only one who does.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'':

* On ''[[The Roy Rogers Show]]'', there was Nellybelle, who was run down to the point she often refused to start. Hence Pat Brady's [[Catch Phrase]] "Aw, NELLYBELLE!"

* In the ''[[Dirk Gently (TV series)|Dirk Gently]]'' TV series, Dirk drives an Austin Princess which he's had for at least sixteen years (and, given when the Princess was made, was presumably not new then). It rarely starts, when it does it's always in reverse, and Richard compares changing gears to Russian Roulette.

 

== Music ==

{{quote|''Carcacha, go step by step, don't stop "limping" forward.

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

 

== Radio ==

* On his radio show, Jim Rome often tells the story of his Merkur XR4TI, which he calls "the worst car ever". (As an inside joke, Jim calls his production crew "the XR4TI Crew").

* Amos and Andy's taxicab, forming the fleet for the Fresh Air Taxicab Company of America, Inc.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[Chez Geek]]'' from Steve Jackson Games includes, as one of the things you can spend your money on, a card representing "Harold the Hoopty Car". It's worth a lot of Slack (points), but it's very expensive, reduces your effective Income for each turn by 1, and every turn it has a one-in-six chance of breaking down beyond repair.

* In ''[[Adeptus Evangelion]]'', this can be the Player's Evangelion if the player rolls poorly. It can be made by the lowest bidder or held together by duct tape (they're on the same table so it can't be both), have [[High-Pressure Blood|pressurized blood that squirts everywhere]], lose bolts in battle that destroy nearby buildings, have a fractured mind, and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|be colored Neon Green.]]

 

== Video Games ==

** The third game also had a number of alleged cars, including the Fiat 131 Abarth, the aforementioned Datsun 510, the 1969 Toyota 2000GT, the Porsche 914/6, the Lotus Elan Sprint, and the Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint.

* ''[[Saints Row 2]]'' has rusted versions of cars that have absolutely terrible performance. They can be fixed by taking them to a mechanic and performing any customization on them, however the performance only remains OK.

 

== Visual Novels ==

* The Murakami family's van in ''[[Kirakira]]''. The main characters have a lot of trouble with it, and predictably, it breaks down completely when they're already in the middle of their [[Darkest Hour]].

 

== 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.

{{quote|'''Strong Bad:''' And that was our road trip. Or, more accurately our car trip, since we didn't go on any roads. Or, even more accurately, our car, since we didn't go on any trips either.}}

 

== Web Comics ==

* In ''[[Drive (webcomic)|Drive]]'', the Machito is one of these, until the Emperor has it upgraded.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

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

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

* The ''[[Total Drama Island|Total Drama]]'' series feature several alleged vehicles, though only one of them is a car:

** The Lame-o-sine, complete with an obnoxious set of bull horns on the front.

** The single prop plane in ''Island'' and the Total Drama Jumbo Jet are certainly less than airworthy, with the former's wings falling off after one flight & the latter's front-end falling off in the ''Action'' special.

** The contestant-built bikes in "That's Off the Chain" were built from scrap materials. Some held together while others fell apart or [[Stuff Blowing Up|blew up]].

 

== Real Life ==