Yesterday, someone tweeted a picture of the fantastic LeMons "Homer" from The Simpsons. They thought it ruined a "perfectly good E30." Because, I don't know, they're dead inside? Anyway, their joyless post gave us an idea here: what are all the real cars in the Simpsons?
The Simpsons has been on since DaVinci was a huge fan and Cotton Mather railed against them, so they've had plenty of time to work in a lot of actual cars into the show. This list will be for every car that can be pretty reasonably identified as a real-world car — that's why the Powell Motors Homer and the Canyonero aren't on the list.
Also, we programmed the Jalopnik Mainframe (located in the back room of the erotic bakery on the top floor of the Capitol Records building in Hollywood) only to use show episodes for this search — no video games or comics or whatever.
Even though we had all of the Jalopnik staff contributing, I'm sure we're missing some, so stick ones you find in the comments and we'll make this a living list, growing, changing, learning, like a Terminator's brain.
Also, about 1/2 way into this I realized that IMCDB has a pretty comprehensive list already. We're all pulling from the same batch of still images, really, and we came to some different conclusions about a few of them, so the more lists of Simpsons cars the merrier, I say. And I love IMCDB no matter what.
To make this fun, I'm going to leave it up to you guys to figure out what episode these cars are in; just put your answers in Kinja using the number of the car. Sound good? Does that convince you I didn't just not feel like looking up all the episodes?
Let's get to it, in no real order:
1. Mr. Burns' 1912 (or so) Stutz Bearcat
2. 1919-1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8
3. 1950 Mercury Woody Wagon
4. 1956 DeSoto Fireflite Sportsman
5. 1957 Chevy Bel-Air Sport Coupe
6. The Cuban cabs: 1957 Ford Fairlane and 1956 Packard Patrician
7. 1960 Cadillac Eldorado (among others)
8. 1961 Chevy Impala
9. 1964 Chevy Impala Convertible, Mercedes-Benz W123 (and others, coming up)
10. 1968 Chevy Nova
11. 1970 Dodge Coronet
12. 1970-1973 Chevy Camaro Z28 with RS front(2nd gen)
13. 1973 Buick Estate Wagon
14. 1977-1984 Sedan De Ville (5th gen)
15. 1987 Buick Skylark (Johnny Carson himself told us that)
16. 1896 Duryea (though could possibly be a 1896 Ford Quadracycle) and those tires need re-vulcanizing, post haste!
17. 1947 Ford Convertible
18. 1975-1980 AMC Pacer, 1990-1996 Chevy Caprice Wagon
19. 1961-1968 Amphicar. Aqua-Car? You're not fooling anyone.
20. 1959-1961 Austin Healey 3000 Mark I
21. IMCDB says this is a Plymouth Barracuda. I wasn't sure at first because of the front grille, but it seems to be a 1971 Barracuda.
22. VW Beetles! Of course there's Beetles all over the place. Most are generic '68 and up-looking ones, like the one that is the largest car that tall man could afford. Herbie there is a '63.
23. 1971-1995 Bentley Corniche Cabriolets
24. Mercedes-Benzes: S-Class, SLK, W124T
25. Mercedes-Benz ML, Ford Focus (?), Prius, New Beetle
26. BMW 7 Series (E23)
27. 1930-1934 Bugatti Type 50 (referred to as a 'Sexarossa')
28. Chevy C4 Corvette, Mercedes-Benz 190SL
29. Cadillac CTS
30. 1981 Chevy Camaro
31. 1990-1996 Chevy Caprice
32. Chapron Citroën DS Decapotable
33. Checker Marathon taxi
34. 2000-2006 Chevy Suburban (10th gen)
35. Citroën Dayne, Triumph Spitfire (?)
36. 1960-1964 Chevy Corvair Convertible (1st Gen)
37. 1957 Chevy Corvette
38. 1968-1969 Dodge Charger
39. DeLorean DMC-12
40. 1999-2005 Dodge Neon
41. 1994-2001 Dodge Ram 1500
42. 1928-1932 Dusenberg Model J
43. GM EV-1
44. 1987-1992 Ferrari F40
45. 1972 Fiat 850 Spider
46. 1979-1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am
47. 1973-1978 Ford Country Squire
48. Ford E-Series/Econoline Van
49. 1995-2001 Ford Explorer, Toyota Prius (2nd gen)
50. 1992-1996 Ford F-150 (9th gen)
51. 1965-1968 Ford Galaxie (3rd gen)
52. 1973-1978 Ford LTD Coupe. Maybe — possibly a Buick Riviera? This one's tricky, but the details of that grille and pointy prow/bumper are pushing me to LTD.
53. 1998-2001 Lincoln Town Car, Ford Fusion, 1995-1999 Ford Taurus (3rd gen— not 100% on that)
54. 1990-1994 Geo Metro
55. AMC Gremlin. One of the few models to be shared by unrelated characters, Marge and Hans Moleman.
56. AC Invalid Car/Harper Invacar. I'm including an actual pic so you'll believe me. I knew this had to be based on an invalid car, and I think it looks most like the AC one. I love it because AC also made, of course, the Cobra. And I bet they shared at least a few parts. In the show, it's Eastern European something (the country no longer exists), but I still think it's based on this.
Oh, and 'H' in Cyrillic means 'N', so "Put it in H!" actually makes sense.
57. 1998-2004 Honda Odyssey (2nd gen)
58. AM General Hummvee
59. 1994-2000 Hyundai Accent (1st gen), Suzuki Swift, Saab 9000
60. Jaguar XJS, Saab 99
61. 1986-1995 Jeep Wrangler YJ
62. VW Karmann-Ghia Convertible (pre-1972)
63. Lamborghini Gallardo
64. Renault LeCar (with nonstandard crane-magnet attachment)
65. 1980-1989 Lincoln Town Car (coupe and sedan)
66. 1964-1965 McLaren M1A
67. Ford Model T
68. 1968 Ford Mustang Convertible, 1957 Chevy Bel Air, 1967 Chevy Corvette Sting Ray, 1967 Pontiac GTO, 1957 Dodge Custom Royal, 1970 Plymouth Super Bee, 1932 Ford Model B
69. 2010 Ford Mustang GT
70. 2nd gen Dodge Neon, AMC Gremlin, 3rd gen Ford Taurus, Lada Samara (!), Saturn SC (3rd gen), and the Pacer from before. This one is also a good example to point out the recent additon of toon-rendered CGI cars to the Simpsons. That's part of why the cars have gotten more numerous, detailed, and based on more actual cars.
71. 2005-2006 Mini Cooper
72. 2009 Nissan Cube
73. 1990-1999 Pontiac Trans Sport (called a 1997 Pontiac Astrowagon in the episode)
74. 1977-1981 Pontiac Bonneville
75. 1968 Pontiac Firebird. This is Snake's Li'l Bandit, and it's ironic both he and his perennial robbery/gunshot victim, Apu, both drive/have driven Firebirds.
76. 1984-1989 Porsche 911 Targa
77. Rolls-Royce Phantom, Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud
78. 1996-1999 Saturn SL
79. 1979 Honda Accord Hatchback
80. 2000 Smart ForTwo
81. 1944 Studebaker Commander
82. 1955-1957 Ford Thunderbird, 1964-1968 Ford Thunderbird
83. 1991-1996 Toyota XV10 Camry, 2001-2006 XV30 Camry
84. 1986-1991 VW Vanagon
85. 1982-1992 Volvos 700 series cars
86. 1998-2006 Volvo S80
87. 1999-2000 Volvo V70
88. 1984-1987 VW Cabriolet. Though this one is missing it's trademark "basket handle" roll bar. And turn indicators. And side marker lights.
89. 1973 VW Thing (Type 181), Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen. These two are natural brothers.
90. VW Type II Microbuses (1960-1967; more appear through series)
91. WWII-era Willys Jeep
92. 1947 Ford Super De Luxe Convrtible Coupe (with Phil Silvers inside)