History Main / ThePreciousPreciousCar

If the one who owns the car is a main character, the trope is WatchThePaintJob. See also ItsGoingDown. Practically a subtrope of WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong.

If the one who owns the car is a main character, the trope is WatchThePaintJob. See also ItsGoingDown.

** Later, Winston Wolf's Acura:

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* {{Altermeta}}: Josephine has a [[http://altermeta.net/oldarchive/archive.php?comic=71 late model Mustang]] that she's still too young to drive.
[[/folder]]

* Vice-Principal Uchiyamada in ''{{GTO}}'' has a very shiny Benz that he loves very much and it gets thrashed over and over again. [[spoiler: Multiple times people attempts suicide and just happens to land on the car, it also gets stolen (by students) and driven off into Tokyo Bay.]]

* Characters in ''SinCity'' love to take care of their cars. Wallace and Dwight's caddilacs are the two biggest examples. Unfortunately, many of these cars do get wrecked, much to the chagrin of the characters.

* {{Altermeta}}: Josephine has a [[http://altermeta.net/oldarchive/archive.php?comic=71 late model Mustang]] that She's still too young to drive.

* Crowley's very attached to his Bently in ''GoodOmens''.

--> '''Winter''': "Get closer! We have to get that data disk!"
--> '''Tycho''': "Ease up! Elscol and Wedge practically have 'em giftwrapped! After all, I promised Darklighter I'd bring this baby back without a scratch!"
-->[Winter shoots at their own speeder]
--> '''Winter''': "Now it's scratched. Get closer!"
---> ''[[XWingSeries Battleground: Tatooine]]''

* ''OneCrazySummer'' features Teddy's red Ferrari, complete with personalized license plates reading "CU LATER".

* Archie's dad's Pontiac Firebird that ends up wrapped around a tree in ''HighSchoolUSA''. The kids then concoct a scheme to persuade Archie's dad that he wrecked the car himself.

[[folder:Literature]]
* Crowley's very attached to his Bently in ''GoodOmens''.
[[/folder]]

* Altermeta: Josephine has a late model Mustang that She's still too young to drive.

--> '''Winter''': "Get closer! We have to get that data disk!"
--> '''Tycho''': "Ease up! Elscol and Wedge practically have 'em giftwrapped! After all, I promised Darklighter I'd bring this baby back without a scratch!"
-->[Winter shoots at their own speeder]
--> '''Winter''': "Now it's scratched. Get closer!"
---> ''[[XWingSeries Battleground: Tatooine]]''

There's this total jerk, see, and he has a really nice car, very possibly a [[MidlifeCrisisCar shiny red convertible]]. And he loves this car more than anything else in the world. He will make it clear to everyone that the car is worth more to him than all their lives put together, and they are not to touch it, go near it, even look at it wrong.

There are three possible futures for this car:
# Somebody will borrow it without permission.
# It will be destroyed.
# Most likely, both of the above.

If the one who owns the car is a main character, the trope is WatchThePaintJob. See also ItsGoingDown.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime/Manga]]
* Vice-Principal Uchiyamada in ''{{GTO}}'' has a very shiny Benz that he loves very much and it gets thrashed over and over again. [[spoiler:Multiple times people attempts suicide and just happens to land on the car, it also gets stolen (by students) and driven off into Tokyo Bay.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''Battleground: Tatooine'', an arc in the XWingSeries comics, Winter and Tycho have to borrow Huff Darklighter's shiny, expensive speeder to chase after some people who shot up a party. While driving, Tycho takes it a bit slow, telling Winter that they promised to bring it back without a scratch. Winter then shoots the front of the airspeeder and says "Now it's scratched. Go!" A few pages later, the speeder is totally destroyed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* "[[FerrisBuellersDayOff The 1961 Ferrari 250GT California.]]"
-->'''Cameron Frye''': Less than a hundred were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love. It is his passion.
-->'''Ferris Bueller''': It is his fault he didn't lock the garage.
* Flounder's brother's car in ''AnimalHouse''.
* Kirk's stepdad's car in the ''StarTrek'' [[Film/StarTrek movie]].
* Kerr's car from ''TerminalVelocity'' gets driven ''out of a plane''. And Kerr ''leaps out after it''. It does not go well for him.
* Agent Malloy's car from ''ConAir''.
** Possibly subverted. He actually shrugged off its destruction.
-->'''Vince Larkin''': I know a good body shop in Fresno if it's insured.\\
'''Duncan Malloy''': I was bored with that car anyway.\\
'''Vince Larkin''': It worked out nicely, then.
* Starsky's Gran Torino in the ''[[Film/StarskyAndHutch Starsky & Hutch]]'' movie. Very unusual in that Starsky is a protagonist, and (after being talked into attempting an ill-judged jump) he destroys the car himself.
* Walt Kowalski's titular car in the Clint Eastwood movie ''GranTorino''. True to the trope, the car does get 'borrowed' without his consent.
** If by 'borrowed' you mean 'run away from in mortal terror after a would-be thief stares into the wrong end of a fully loaded high caliber BadassGrandpa' then sure.
* Variation in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'': Lando, about to borrow the ''Millennium Falcon'' to go with Wedge and Rogue Squadron after the second Death Star, tells Han he'll bring his ship back without a scratch on it. Han has a feeling that he'll never see his beloved ''Falcon'' again. Lando ''does'' bring her back, and her radar dish is missing.
** It should be noted that an earlier version of the script had the ''Falcon'' getting destroyed in the Death Star's explosion.
** Also, the shiny yellow speeder Anakin commandeered early on in ''AttackOfTheClones''? [[http://www.holonetnews.com/56/news/13516_5.html Was the extremely prized possession of the Republic's most corrupt senator.]]
* Doug's father-in-law's Mercedes, ''TheHangover''.
* Main character's brother's 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge in ''SexDrive''.
* Arguably, Vincent's Malibu in ''PulpFiction''. Possibly the one thing he's proudest of in all the world, and "some dickless piece of shit" ([[spoiler:heavily implied to be Butch]]) goes and keys it.
* Happens to the yuppie's Jaguar that Jack takes with a FlashedBadgeHijack in order to catch the bus in ''{{Speed}}''.
* We don't really learn about the car's preciousness until after the accident, but I say ''FastTimesAtRidgemontHigh'' totally counts:
-->'''Jefferson's Brother''': My brother's gonna kill us! He's gonna kill you and he's gonna kill me! ...My brother's gonna shit!
-->'''Spicoli''': Well, make up your mind, dude, is he gonna shit, or is he gonna kill us?
* Archie's dad's Pontiac Firebird that ends up wrapped around a tree in ''HighSchoolUSA''. The kids then concoct a scheme to persuade Archie's dad that he wrecked the car himself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Crowley's very attached to his Bently in ''GoodOmens''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveAction TV]]
* Here's a handy guide: if Kelso makes even a passing reference to his car in an episode of ''{{Scrubs}}'', bad things are going to happen to it.
* In ''PowerRangersRPM,'' when Col. Truman refers to the Project Go-Onger van as his prized possession, you ''knew'' it was [[ItsGoingDown going down]]. And it did: the MonsterOfTheWeek planted a bomb on it, causing it to go out of control and right off a cliff. The Rangers bailed out just in time to see it die.
* Lt. Gruber tanks in ''{{Allo Allo}}''
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Professional Wrestling]]
* EddieGuerrero and his lowriders. One time when he and ReyMysterioJr were teaming Rey got slammed onto the hood of Eddie's car. Eddie came over to see what happened, cold-cocked Rey, and embraced the car as if it could feel pain.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''DeathRally'' disables the sabotage option at the Underground Market if the player is going up against the Adversary. Of course, most players beat him by blowing up his car, rather than trying to out-race him, anyway.
-->"What? You crazy, man? Nobody touches the Adversary's automobile and lives, nobody."
* ''Grand Theft Auto: Vice City''. Underground racing circuit plus bazooka = win for the player.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Mr. Wolffe gets a car like this in an episode of ''RockosModernLife''.
* Kevin's car in ''Ben10AlienForce''. The abuse it is subjected to throughout the series (and Kevin's subsequent freak-outs) is a RunningGag.
* Happens to Bummer's golf cart in the ''{{Stoked}}!'' episode "Reef, Broseph's and Emma's Totally Stupid Adventure".
* Owned by a JerkJock in an episode of ''BatmanBeyond''. When he bullies a wimpier classmate, the wimp snags his dad's humongous construction 'bot and crushes it like a beer can.
[[/folder]]

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* Vice-Principal Uchiyamada in GTO has a very shiny Benz that he loves very much and it gets thrashed over and over again. [[spoiler:Multiple times people attempts suicide and just happens to land on the car, it also gets stolen (by students) and driven off into Tokyo Bay.]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''Battleground: Tatooine'', an arc in the XWingSeries comics, Winter and Tycho have to borrow Huff Darklighter's shiny, expensive speeder to chase after some people who shot up a party. While driving, Tycho takes it a bit slow, telling Winter that they promised to bring it back without a scratch. Winter then shoots the front of the airspeeder and says "Now it's scratched. Go!" A few pages later, the speeder is totally destroyed.

* Vice-Principal Uchiyamada in GTO has a very shiny Benz that he loves very much and it gets thrashed over and over again. [[spoiler:Multiple times people attempts suicide and just happens to land on the car, it also gets stolen (by students) and driven off into Tokyo Bay.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

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* Crowley's very attached to his Bently in GoodOmens.

* Lt. Gruber tanks in {{AlloAllo}}

* Main character's brother's Pontiac in ''SexDrive''.

* Variation in ReturnOfTheJedi: Lando, about to borrow the ''Millennium Falcon'' to go with Wedge and Rogue Squadron after the second Death Star, tells Han he'll bring his ship back without a scratch on it. Han has a feeling that he'll never see his beloved ''Falcon'' again. Lando ''does'' bring her back, and her radar dish is missing.

** Also, the shiny yellow speeder Anakin commandeered early on in AttackOfTheClones? [[http://www.holonetnews.com/56/news/13516_5.html Was the extremely prized possession of the Republic's most corrupt senator.]]

* Main character's brother's Pontiac in ''Sex Drive''.

* Kevin's car in Ben10AlienForce. The abuse it is subjected to throughout the series (and Kevin's subsequent freak-outs) is a RunningGag.

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<<|VehicleTropes|>>

-->'''Cameron Frye''': Less than a hundred were made. My father spent three years restoring this car. It is his love, it is his passion.

* Cameron's father's Ferrari 250 GT California in ''[[FerrisBuellersDayOff Ferris Bueller's Day Off]]''.