Before we’re old enough to think about taking our driving test, most of us long to drive and own the cars made popular in the films and television shows we grew up watching.
Here at WeBuyAnyDamagedCar we’ve put together a list of some of the most iconic cars (along with a few of our favourites) from the past 50 years of film and television that have famously sold at auction. We deal with damaged and broken cars all the time, so it’s nice to see that the following famous cars have survived this long!
Aston Martin DB5 – James Bond
James Bond’s DB5 was the first ever ‘poster car’, and it’s where iconic cars in film really began. The silver Aston Martin, as driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965), went up for auction in 2010 selling for £2.6 million – which was actually a lower figure than expected!
The car even came complete with all full range of Bond gadgets, including a red ejector seat button in the gearstick, machine guns, a tracking device and …a telephone – deadly in the right hands.
DeLorean – Back to the Future
Released in 1981 the DeLorean DMC-12, with its iconic gull-wing doors, had people queuing to get their hands on it – some even offering $10,000 more than the $12,000 asking price. When DeLorean went bust in 1983, interest in the car subsided. But all that changed in 1985 when Back to The Future hit the screens.
Only three of the seven cars made for the franchise have survived, but one DeLorean time machine which appeared in Back to the Future III was sold in 2011 – complete with flux capacitor – for an impressive $541,000.
Reliant Regal – Only Fools and Horses
The massively successful Only Fools and Horses ran for an impressive ten years, from 1981 to 1991. What’s more impressive is that, back in 2007, one of the three yellow three-wheelers used on the show was sold at auction for £44,227 – to Ricky Hatton, of all people.
The Batmobile – Original Batman Series
In January this year, the classic Batmobile from the original 60s Batman television series went up for auction, selling for £2.6 million.
Driven erratically each week by Adam West, The Batmobile – which was actually based on the 1955 Ford Lincoln Futura concept car – was arguably the best thing about the series. Much like the Bond car, it came with its own set of gadgets, including the ‘Emergency Bat Turn Lever’ (which deployed parachutes), the ‘Automatic Tire Inflation Device’ and the… ‘Bat-tering Ram’.
Ecto-1 – Ghostbusters
What better car to transport four ghost hunters, four proton packs, ecto-goggles and ghost traps around New York City than a 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor Hearse.
‘Ecto-1’ sold at auction for $80,000 in 2010. Not a bad price considering the $4,800 Dr. Ray Stantz (played by Dan Aykroyd) paid it for.
1949 Buick Roadmaster – Rain Man
Unlike the other cars in our list, this old car didn’t travel through time, feature an ejector seat or deploy parachutes.
The 1949 Buick Roadmaster, as driven by Charlie (Tom Cruise) and Raymond ‘I’m a good driver’ Babbitt (Dustin Hoffman) in 1988’s Oscar-winning film Rain Man, went up for auction recently in December 2012, selling for an unexpected €175,500 – more than doubling its auction estimate of €80,000,
1975 Ford Gran Torino – Starsky & Hutch
With its outrageous car chase scenes, Starsky & Hutch was a huge success when it landed in 1975. But what is the popular American cop drama most remembered for? The car.
The custom-painted Gran Torino spawned thousands of replicas here in the UK, with thousnds of enthusiasts painting the white arrow stripe on their own vehicles.
When the show ended in 1979 all the cars were all sold at auction, but in 2008 a Torino featured in both the TV series and the 2004 remake appeared on ebay. The reserve wasn’t met, but the bidding managed to reach €85,100.
The ‘Armchair Mini’ – Mr. Bean
The Mini that went up for auction in 2010 wasn’t actually the original paint can, broom and rope controlled Mini 1000 from the Mr. Bean television series (as pictured above). The car was a replica, built for a one-off ‘all-classic Mini parade’ performance at Goodwood’s Revival.
While details of the sale don’t appear to have been released, the Mini was expected to auction for £12,000-20,000. In lieu of an actual sale figure, we couldn’t help but include the original clip from the show…