Tropes associated with this episode:
- Car-related tropes:
- The Alleged Car: The Arnolds' car has a multitude of problems and is ready for the junkyard after a lifetime of abuse.
- Cool Car: Jack is nearly talked into buying a Ford Mustang convertible... until the smooth-talking salesman shows him the terms of the payment. In the end, the car the family does end up buying – a 1970 Ford Galaxie 500 – is just fine and cool.
- Fell Off the Back of a Truck: The Arnolds' car, because of its rough state.
- What a Piece of Junk: What the Arnolds' car has become, after years of abuse and mechanical problems that have started to mount, one on top the other. In fact, the car literally begins to fall apart shortly after Jack brings their new car home, and the old one is loaded on a flatbed truck to be bound for Family Car Heaven.
- A Day in the Limelight: Jack, when he arrives home with their new car ... and the neighbors all come over to greet him and compliment him on his new wheels. Jack feels like a king, but more importantly, Kevin (and the others) have a lesson reaffirmed: Their dad doesn't need cool wheels (such as the Ford Mustang convertible he nearly bought) to be a cool guy.
- Not So Above It All: During the whole run of the show Karen may have been a hippy who loathed the materialistic culture she lived in... but when the time comes to buy a new family car she is just as eager as her brothers to get the cool Ford Mustang convertible and whoops louder than anyone when it seems like they'll get it.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: During an argument, Jack asks Norma if she knows how much money he has invested into their old car, only for her to start listing the cost of every repair down to the last dollar.Jack: What, you're going to itemize here?
