History Main / MyCarHatesMe

Note that even if the car is stalled during an earthquake on a burning railroad track with two trains coming and a nuclear warhead heading toward the area, the driver will keep turning the ignition key, hitting the gas pedal, and praying, "Please start, please start..." but not simply get out of the car and run for it. Chalk it up to either GenreBlindness or being horrifically attached to personal property. Some may even get out only to apply PercussiveMaintenance to the hood, which has a higher success rate than you would guess.

* The French-Canadian movie ''Elvis Gratton'' [[PlayingWithATrope spoofs this trope]] with a literal version of it. It involves a [[CoolCar talking limousine]] which actually ''insults'' the titular character. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cood3ZnRJk8 See for yourself]] (in Québec French with lots of swearing). He has a pretty bad record with [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJWQCN5BKfc talking limousines]] anyway.

* In the ''FawltyTowers'' episode "Gourmet Night," [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv0onXhyLlE Basil shows]] not only that [[MyCarHatesMe his car hates him]], but he hates his car in return and promptly gives it a damn good thrashing. This scene won the series a BAFTA award. They tried it with branches of varying size, until they found the funniest one.
* Arrived at serendipitously in an episode of ''{{Seinfeld}}''. After the characters spend the entire episode looking for their car in a mall parking garage, the intended ending was for them to just find the car and drive off. No one was happy with it, but none of them could think of a better ending. Then they actually shot the scene, and the car wouldn't start. Everyone knew they had found their better ending. The reason the car wouldn't start was that it wasn't a real car, they just let the scene run after the actors got in the car.
* Subverted in the ''{{Firefly}}'' episode "Jaynestown". Wash can't seem to get Serenity up in the air when the crew needs to make a quick getaway, until Inara walks into the cockpit and asks if there's a problem, when Wash gears up to yell at her-and the engines finally turn over. Subverted because there was a legitimate reason it wouldn't start; [[spoiler:the magistrate had a landlock put on Serenity to keep Jayne hanging around long enough to bring him to "justice", and it finally started when the magistrate's son put a call into port to lift the landlock-Inara's pep talk about what really makes a man made more of a man out of him than losing his virginity ever could, and he says so. His father actually backs out of the room, baffled and angrily mute, unable to fathom that his own son might object to the way he runs his mud farm]].

* In ''{{Primeval}}'' the presence of dinosaurs causes ignitions to fail.
* ''TopGear''

* In an episode of {{ER}}, as Doug is driving to a benefit that he doesn't want to attend, his car suddenly blows a tire. Suddenly, the trope is subverted as this results in a young boy coming to him for help in saving his trapped brother, in one of the show's best episodes.
* It's pretty much a RunningGag that the cast and crew of ''DestinationTruth'' are simply incapable of using a vehicle without having it break down or otherwise run into trouble. Pretty much every vehicle they've used on screen over the course of multiple seasons has had these troubles. They've lampshaded it recently, as it's now fairly common to hear somebody say "Can't we just get a car that works? Just once?"

* ''{{Terminator 2}}'': John Connor's motorcycle fails to start while trying to escape from the [[BigBad T-1000]] until it eventually gets going and he makes his escape.
* ''TheGodsMustBeCrazy'' Has a landrover affectionately called "The Antichrist". Needless to say, a lot of bad things happen with it including having no handbrake, no brakes at all, [[spoiler: and even being stuck up in a tree.]]
* In ''PoltergeistIITheOtherSide'' when the father is cursing his car, Taylor tells him that his car is literally angry at him and refuses to work properly because of that. This of course leads to a dramatic situation when the family is trying to escape.

* [[Film/HarryPotter The movie]] has a straighter example. When Harry and Ron are trying to escape the spiders, the flying gear happens to be jammed until Ron manages to unjam it at the last moment.

* Seen several times on the classic ''[[TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]'':

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', this has happened to the TARDIS at least once.

* Parodied in the 'Audition Tape' short which ended StephenColbert's WHCA speech. Colbert reaches the car, with [[AbhorrentAdmirer Helen Thomas]] in [[strike: hot]] gradual pursuit, but is so terrified that he repeatedly fumbles the keys (in an exaggerated fashion) until he finally realizes the keys have a remote lock. Once he's in the car, He again fumbles the keys to get them in the ignition. However once he does, the car starts first time. He does however wait in the car engine running. He screams for a while, then backs out of the spot. Then stops for some more screaming. Then finally he drives out.

Subtrope to PlotDrivenBreakdown.

PlotDrivenBreakdown is the supertrope to this.

->''"My car won't start!"
->"Well, maybe there's a ''killer'' after you."''

->''"My car won't start!" "Well, maybe there's a ''killer'' after you."''

* The entire plot of the film ''{{Premonition}}'' was that a woman was living a week of time in mixed-up order and that at some point during the week her husband dies. [[spoiler:His death eventually ends up being caused by a mix of her actions (distracting him) and by him being too stupid to get out of the car with an out-of-control semi barreling down the road toward his stalled car.]]
* ''ChildrenOfMen'': This happens when the heroes try to escape the farm. A tense [[ChaseScene chase]] then ensues, with the heroes pushing their non-starting car, followed by angry pursuers -- on foot.
* ''OutOfSight'': Jack Foley was arrested shortly after robbing a bank because his getaway car wouldn't start.

* Referenced in "Stuck In A Movie!" by the Aquabats:

* In Jim Butcher's ''TheDresdenFiles'' novels, Wizard Harry Dresden drives an old beat up VW Beetle, choosing it for its simple and rugged nature so that it won't be overly hexed by his magic-ness. However that doesn't stop him from getting troped by this one very often, usually at the most inopportune of times.

* The ''[[TheTwilightZone Twilight Zone]]'' episode "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street" (first aired February 4th, 1960) is perhaps the earliest instance of this trope on TV. Twilight Zone has done this more than once, with "A Thing About Machines," featuring a man who hates machinery being murdered by his car, and "You Drive," where after a hit-and-run accident the car won't stop honking, running the radio, and attempting to kill him until the owner gives up and sits in the car... and it drives him to the police station.

* Happens to two cops who try to escape the title creature in ''{{Tarantula}}''. This is especially strange given it was a (then) brand new 1955 car.

A favourite device of SlasherMovie and {{Horror}} in general. A common consequence of driving TheAllegedCar. Also see PlotSensitiveItems. Can be preceded by a DangerousKeyFumble, if the bad guys are a bit too far away to catch up.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' -- the moment it becomes critical for the time-traveling [=DeLorean=] to start up, it doesn't. There's an elaborate fan theory as to why this is, involving the supposition that the [=DeLorean=]'s time circuit is being used [[MeanwhileInTheFuture at another point in time]] (preventing the one in the "now" from working), but it could also just be {{Plot Driven|Breakdown}} PhlebotinumBreakdown. Of course, despite the fact that he was working on a very strict timetable, and failed to get moving as soon as his alarm went off, he still managed to hit the wire [[MillionToOneChance at the exact moment lightning struck]].
** To be fair, the movie does establish that there is something wrong with the starter, so it isn't as if the car ran perfectly until the very moment the plot needed it to break down.
** The [=DeLorean=]'s problems with breaking down were [[TheAllegedCar very much]] TruthInTelevision.
** It was also theorized that it was simply the the laws of time travel at work to keep time together. Marty wanted to go back to mall earlier to prevent the events of the movie thus far from happening. Since that would further complicate the situation (and have two Delorian's and Marty's in the same area at once) the car failed to start until it was too late for him to do so.

** Justified, in that a side effect of Harry's magic is that he is a WalkingTechBane. His abilities (and consequently, his anti-tech aura) are enhanced by emotion, and this trope practically requires that the victim be upset/frustrated/scarred out of their wits when trying to start the car.
*** Also in that his car has been shot at, spun out into a wall, run into ''and'' over a chlorofiend, infested by mold demons, jumped by werewolves, and clawed by something Harry either can't or won't name. He freely admits the only reason the Beetle is still moving is courtesy of his ridiculously talented mechanic.

** [[Film/HarryPotter The movie]] has a straighter example. When Harry and Ron are trying to escape the spiders, the flying gear happens to be jammed until Ron manages to unjam it at the last moment.

* Arrived at serendipitously in an episode of ''{{Seinfeld}}''. After the characters spend the entire episode looking for their car in a mall parking garage, the intended ending was for them to just find the car and drive off. No one was happy with it, but none of them could think of a better ending. Then they actually shot the scene, and the car wouldn't start. Everyone knew they had found their better ending.
** The reason the car wouldn't start was that it wasn't a real car, they just let the scene run after the actors got in the car.

* While ''WesternAnimation/ThePenguinsOfMadagascar'''s car is usually pretty nifty, in "Driven To The Brink" Rico accidentally trashes it and hastily rebuilds it on his own. Afterwards, it ''literally'' hates him, to the point of actively trying to kill him.
** It was really a mistake in Rico's reconstruction, but Rico became convinced that the car was sentient.

* In ''GoneInSixtySeconds'' the main character is recklessly driving a Shelby [=GT500=] (nicknamed Eleanor), performing insane stunts and crazy maneuvers in order to get the police off his tail. He eventually manages to do so, and hides in an empty road. But just as a cop car shows up and he wants to inconspicuously get away, he accidentally breaks a sideview mirror and Eleanor's engine dies. He repeatedly tries to start it up (attracting the cop's attention), and when he eventually does the chase resumes with renewed vigor. In the same movie, after the original Eleanor gets destroyed, the main character's friends give him a (mostly) restored Eleanor as a present. He drives off with it, but as the screen fades out we hear the engine die again...

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Reboot}}'': A RunningGag is that Bob likes his car, but his car does not like him. Many times he would spy some oncoming peril, leap in and curse as it noisily failed to start. And when he finally does break down and get himself a new mode of transportation, it's nearly immediately destroyed and he's back to his old unreliable car. His car finally was destroyed in the third season, and he finally had it replaced with a semi-reliable one. [[hottip:*:By this point, Bob could fly on his own power anywhere.]]

-->--'''Creator/MitchHedberg''', ''Mitch All Together''

* ''{{Christine}}'': The basic plot of the Creator/StephenKing novel. To be fair, she didn't hate her owner -- she was [[WomanScorned just]] [[ClingyJealousGirl jealous]] of his girlfriend.

* The legendary turquoise Ford Anglia from ''HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' was actually a very faithful (flying) automobile indeed (from staying airborne much longer than it was used to, to saving Harry and Ron's necks from a swarm of hungry Acromantulas). It did, however, happen to lose steam at the most unfortunate time- when Ron and Harry were positioned right above the Whomping Willow.

-->--'''MitchHedberg''', ''Mitch All Together''

A favourite device of SlasherMovie and {{Horror}} in general. A common consequence of driving TheAllegedCar. Also see PlotSensitiveItems.