Sometimes, a character’s car in a show or movie is clearly the result of some behind-the-scenes brand deal with an automaker. Other times, though, you’ll find car casting that’s just inspired — perfect for the character, the situation, and the show or movie itself. This morning, we asked for your favorite examples of car casting in film and TV, and you came back with some great responses. Here are ten of our favorites.
2 / 12
The Dude’s 1973 Ford Gran Torino from The Big Lebowski.
The Dude’s Gran Torino is, to put it kindly, a wreck. Its conditions only deteriorates as the film goes on, but the Dude simply abides. Fun fact: I’m legally ordained in a religion based off of this movie. It’s called Dudeism, and I have all the official paperwork necessary to perform wedding ceremonies in the state of New York. Bonus points if you drive away from the altar in a rusted-out Gran Torino.
Submitted by: As Du Volant
3 / 12
If we are doing TV shows, I agree with the article from a couple years ago here talking about Stranger Things.
What most period shows have wrong about say 1985 is that they use almost all mid-80s cars. Which isn’t accurate.
Stranger Things nailed it. Cars from the late 70s/early80s are common. In other words 5-10 year old used cars in 1985. Not at all uncommon back then. There are a few older cars and a few newer ones, but the vast majority of cars are 5-10 years old. And the cars make sense for the characters. There’s no “single mom struggling to raise 2 kids” driving a brand new sports car or the like like far too many shows.
We’ve covered the cars of Stranger Things a few times here on Jalopnik, and with the show due to return in May we might have another installment. Stranger Things rarely misses the mark on car casting, with a litany of 70s and 80s vehicles for us car nerds to pore over in seemingly ever outdoor shot.
Submitted by: hoser68
4 / 12
Columbo’s Peugeot 403. It was such a non-threatening car for such a non-threatening detective. Caused the criminals to let their guard around him because they didn’t take him seriously.
For some reason, I have been unable to escape posts about Columbo for the past two weeks or so. I hadn’t even heard of the show before, and now it’s everywhere. Is this some sort of crowdsourced mind control, the universe aligning to peer pressure me into watching a late-sixties detective show? Because it’s working.
Submitted by: MaximilianMeen
5 / 12
Steve Urkel and his Isetta
Fun fact about Steve Urkell’s Isetta: Jaleel White, who played both Steve Urkell and Stefan Urquelle on Family Matters, still owns the car. At least, he did a few years ago, but would you sell it in his situation? I didn’t think so.
Submitted by: BunkyTheMelon
6 / 12
The Miata in MacGruber
Allow me to don my Miata Nerd hat for a second: According to the gauge cluster and wheels, this particular Miata is a 1996 M-Edition car. Admittedly, we don’t see the Nardi shift knob and e-brake handle, but everything else looks right — except the color. The ‘96 M-Edition only came in the gorgeous Starlight Blue Mica, one of the greatest colors to ever grace a motor vehicle, but MacGruber’s Miata appears to have been resprayed in an early Soul Red. A travesty.
Submitted by: Ted Ladue
7 / 12
In Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Not the GT 250 California, but Cameron’s Alfa Romeo 2000 Sports Sedan. Uncannily right-on for a teenage son of a vintage Ferrari owner.
Cameron’s Alfa Romeo may not have the most screen time in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but it perfectly describes his character. Cameron’s dad famously owns a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder, and Cameron similarly drives an Italian car — he’s trying to live up to the ideals his father set, and the ideals his father wants in a son. But Cameron himself doesn’t really want to be that person. He’s tired of it, and the Alfa’s general state of disrepair shows how little Cameron wants to maintain the illusion.
Also, it took about a season and a half of Succession before I could see Alan Ruck as anyone other than Cameron. He does great work as Connor Roy, but Cameron was such a distinctive role.
Submitted by: pFfft
8 / 12
The Oldsmobile Delta 88 from The Americans
These cars were everywhere in the late ‘70s/early 80s, so they were anonymous enough for a couple of Russian spies to blend into the American landscape without attracting attention, yet the car was distinctive enough in the show’s universe that when you saw it on screen, you knew Phillip and Elizabeth were actively deep in their secret identities.
The Americans was a totally underrated show IMO.
How do you blend in to Cold War-era America? You buy a malaise-era General Motors product, that’s how. The Delta 88 used in The Americans is essentially a modern viewer’s mental image of “late seventies American car” — big, boxy, and painted in some weird gold-beige tone. It’s perfect.
Submitted by: Earthbound Misfit I
9 / 12
1974 Dodge Monaco in Blues Brothers
It’s got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it’s got cop tires, cop suspensions, cop shocks. It’s a model made before catalytic converters so it’ll run good on regular gas. What do you say, is it the new Bluesmobile or what?
The Bluesmobile, by nature of being a surplus cop car, isn’t visually distinct. It blends in with other cruisers of the era — or it would, if not for all the dust, dirt, and grime that absolutely coat the Monaco’s exterior. The titular Blues brothers, similarly, are a bit dirty and grimy. We like ‘em anyway.
Submitted by: Half Man Half Bear Half Pig
10 / 12
what’s the sound of one mic dropping?
Never was there a more perfect joining of personality and automotive branding than that POS Trans Am with the flaming chicken on the hood and Burt Reynolds’ (both the actor and the character he played) in Smokey and the Bandit.
This is the car that made me install a CB radio in my Wrangler back in high school. I later discovered it was broken, and always transmitting, so the local truckers on my commute to school got to hear a lot of Evanescence and Disturbed every morning. Really, it’s Burt Reynolds’ fault.
Submitted by: Lahjik
11 / 12
The Lincoln Continental from the first Matrix. Can’t find a still from the scene under the bridge so this will have to do, but man the car was just... perfect for the role.
What car do you give the to coolest people imaginable in 1999? A sleek, blacked-out, suicide-doored Continental, of course. The Conti worked perfectly with the overall style of The Matrix, with every aesthetic from Morpheus’s formalwear to Trinity’s leather fitting seamlessly with the car. I’ll admit to some slight bias in favor of this series, but the Continental remains one of the greatest car casts in Hollywood.
Submitted by: Atomic