Mitchell Moinian is obsessed with cars, and can't wait for his family to replace their old one. One day, he gets his wish. Unfortunately for him, the car soon turns out to be haunted by the ghost of the girl who died while joyriding in it. And what's worse, she's got malevolent plans for Mitchell — to make him a ghost and ride along with her for eternity!
It was reissued in the Classic Goosebumps line in 2015 as a tie-in to the first movie.
This book provides examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: This time it's no worse than usual but it follows the standard formula of not believing the kid and on top of that Dad accidentally burns their house down.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Downplayed with Todd. He keeps claiming to see ghosts which annoys Mitchell but otherwise they get along better later on.
- Alliterative Name: This book has two, with Mitchell Monian and Merrisa Meddin.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Mitchell wants his dad to get a new car because the current one is so old. Aside from this happening because they get into a car crash, the new car they get happens to be evil.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: Accidentally, and with fatal results. Becka was so dedicated to evil that doing any act of good, even by accident, causes her to vanish forever.
- Body Horror: Becka's ghost is resembles a living corpse, described in sickening detail.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Literally, Mitchell finds a card in the glove compartment that reads "I'M EVIL". The ghost is so intent on being evil that accidentally doing something good makes her vanish.
- Chekhov's Hobby: An interesting example comes with Mitchell's dad, who is a wannabe handyman, whose attempts to fix things often go wrong. Later, he accidentally sets the house on fire while Mitchell is being taken for a joy ride by the ghost car. Because he wasn't at home, he lived and Becka the ghost actually saved him. This is what causes her to vanish, as her whole mission is evil.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Averted, things end happily and it's implied the parents will finally believe Mitchell about the car.
- Evil Twin: The ghost haunting the car is of Marrisa's twin sister, who took the car for a joyride and now haunts the car as an evil ghost.
- Shout-Out: The concept is a clear take on Christine.
- Sinister Car: The titular car is haunted by the ghost of a girl who took it on a joyride and died. Then said ghost attempts to kill the main character several times.
