History Main / MyCarHatesMe

** Variations include the OldWest-themed game with Colin's ''horse'' doing the same, and the ''Film/StarWars''-themed game where Jedi Colin used the Force to stop his ship.

-->'''Izzy:''' They're gonna be chainsaw sushi! [[NightmareFetishist Hahaha!]]

* There was a popular trick in the Eastern Bloc [[CrapsackWorld during the Communist times]], to make sure the cars (or heavy machinery) start during the nastiest winters in the wilderness. Keep a pot in the trunk, drain the coolant (usually straight water, when not even antifreeze will work) when you expect freezing temps overnight. Cut a few branches of wood in the morning, light a fire, heat the water to near-boiling temp and pour it directly into the radiator cap. The pre-heated engine always started this way. It proved quite useful during the harsh winters [[WorldWarTwo on the Eastern Front]]. [[{{UsefulNotes/RedsWithRockets}} Soviet military]] later built directly into the engine bays small gasoline-powered heaters to heat the coolant and oil before engine starts.

* Seen several times on the classic ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'':

** "A Thing About Machines" features a man who hates machinery being murdered by his car, sort of a way for him to be HoistByHisOwnPetard.
** In "You Drive" the car from a hit-and-run accident 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.
* In the ''Series/FawltyTowers'' episode "Gourmet Night," [[https://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.

Note that even if the car is stalled during an earthquake on a burning railroad track with two trains, a tornado, and a nuclear warhead all heading toward the area, the driver will keep turning the ignition key, hitting the gas pedal, and praying, "Please start, please start...". The driver won't try abandoning the car and running for it, even if the danger is slow and distant enough to evade on foot. 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.

* ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': The Millennium Falcon. The ship flies just fine, but the faster-than-light "hyperdrive" system is unreliable. Of course, this happens the first time after taking damage in battle, and the second time because of sabotage at the place of repair. Once R2-D2 manages to find and fix the uncoupled power coupling, it functions perfectly for the duration of the final film.

->''"My car won't start!" \\
"Well, maybe there's a ''killer'' after you."''
-->-- '''Creator/MitchHedberg''', ''Mitch All Together''

%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.

** Also ''occurs'' on their trip through the US deep south, when they need to get away from a gas station after their deliberate attempts to offend the locals prove excessively successful.

* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland.'' The episode "Hook, Line, and Screamer" opens with the campers watching a cheesy horror movie where a teenage couple fails to escape from a chainsaw-wielding SerialKiller because their car won't start.

* ''Machinima/TheGModIdiotBox'': Episode 7 up with a guy ([[ThisLoserIsYou A parody of YouTube visitors on DasBoSchitt's profile]]) not bothering to read the video description. A Combine soldier then attacks his house. His first instinct is to escape in his car, but it does not start and is promptly taken to the air by the soldier. Next the guy attempts starting the ''door knob'' and then a ''home telephone'', both times failing, and finally gets [[DopeSlap beaned on the ear by the soldier.]]

* ''Machinima/TheGModIdiotBox'': Episode 7 up with a guy ([[ThisLoserIsYou A parody of YouTube visitors on DasBoSchitt's profile]]) not bothering to read the video description. A Combine soldier then attacks his house. His first instinct is to escape in his car, but it does not start and is promptly taken to the air by the soldier. Next the guy attempts starting the ''door knob'' and then a ''home telephone'', both times failing, and finally gets hit hard in the ear by the soldier.

* ''WebAnimation/MysterySkullsAnimated'': The group's van breaks down on Arthur twice at inopportune moments. Once in front of a haunted mansion causing Vivi and Mystery to glare at him and them to enter the place which hosted a ghost that deeply wants to kill him and then on the highway while being chased by the same ghost who has at this possessed a semi-truck. Both times it is actually caused by the ghost but Arthur doesn't know this.

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. Often occurs after engaging in AutoErotica.

* Arrived at serendipitously in an episode of ''Series/{{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 ''Series/{{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]].

--> '''Clarkson''' : [[TheEeyore Pisceans]] like a bit of a blub, and there's nothing guaranteed to get the blubbing going like -- "It's broken down again, it ''hates'' me!" It doesn't hate you, it's just an Alfa!
** Also ''occurs'' on their trip through the US deep south, when they need to get away from a gas station after their [[TooDumbToLive deliberate attempts]] to offend the locals prove [[GoneHorriblyRight excessively successful]].

* Invoked in ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaIsland.'' The episode "Hook, Line, and Screamer" opens with the campers watching a cheesy horror movie that has a teenage couple getting caught and murdered by a serial killer because their car won't start.