Tropes about cars, trucks, buses, and their drivers. Whether it's for a Chase Scene, illegal underground racing, or buying one at Honest John's Dealership, be sure to buckle up for these tropes.
Tropes:
- Absurdly-Long Limousine: A stretch limousine is shown to be far longer than humanly possible.
- Accidental Passenger: A person or object accidentally boards a vehicle, which then moves.
- Alcohol Is Gasoline: Using grain alcohol as a substitute for gasoline.
- The Alleged Car: The car is in such disrepair that it can barely function as a car.
- Amphibious Automobile: A car that can drive on or in water.
- Are You Sure You Can Drive This Thing?: An inexperienced driver is forced to pilot a vehicle, often one with which they are completely unfamiliar.
- Armed Blag: A crime involves robbing an armored vehicle.
- Artistic License – Cars: Liberties in how cars are presented in fiction.
- Auto Erotica: Having sex in or on a car.
- Automated Automobiles: The car drives itself, and/or may have other advanced automated features.
- Automobile Opening: A piece of media opens with a car driving past various locations.
- Automobiles Are Alien: Non-humans perceive cars as incomprehensible and may even believe them to be living creatures.
- Awkward Stoplight Moment: When a car stops, a second driver can see the driver in an embarrassing or awkward moment.
- Backseat Changing Room: Changing in the backseat.
- Backseat Driver: A passenger constantly gives driving instructions to the driver.
- Badass Biker: Bikers are presented as the epitome of cool.
- Badass Driver: A driver can do impossible stunts when behind the wheel.
- Banana in the Tailpipe: A banana is placed in a car's tailpipe to prank the owner or disable the vehicle.
- Big Badass Rig: A big rig is depicted as cool and well-equipped.
- Big Honking Traffic Jam
- Blind Driving: A person who can't see drives a car.
- Bottomless Fuel Tanks
- Brake Angrily: Stamping on the brakes in a moment of anger.
- Burning Rubber: A car goes fast enough to leave trails of fire behind.
- Car Chase Shoot-Out
- Car Fu
- Car Hood Sliding
- Carload of Cool Kids
- Car Meets House
- Car Porn
- Car Radio Dispute: Fighting over who gets to choose the music in a car.
- Car Ride Games
- Car Skiing
- Car Song
- Cars Without Tires Are Trains: With its tires removed, a car can drive on train tracks with its rims.
- Chaotic Car Ride
- Chronically Crashed Car
- Construction Vehicle Rampage
- Conveniently Empty Roads: The roads are completely empty when it suits the plot, even in places where there should be traffic.
- Cool Bike
- Cool Car
- Cool Sidecar
- Creepy Stalker Van
- Cup Holders
- Dancing on a Bus: A choreographed song sequence that takes place in a moving vehicle.
- Danger Takes a Backseat: A character realizes too late that an intruder is present in their car.
- Dangerous Key Fumble: A character fumbles with their keys at a critical moment when trying to open or start a car.
- Deadly Remote Control Toy
- Dead Man Honking: A deceased person falls forward onto their car horn, causing it to honk incessantly.
- Death by Ambulance
- The Dinnermobile: A vehicle shaped like an item of food.
- Disposable Vehicle Section: A vehicle can discard a damaged section and function as a smaller vehicle.
- Does Not Drive
- The Driver
- Driver Faces Passenger: The driver of a car faces the passenger while conversing and does not look at the road.
- Driver of a Black Cab: A cab driver, particularly in England, freely expresses his opinions on society while driving a fare.
- Drives Like Crazy
- Driving a Desk: Characters are show in a fake car with the passing scenery projected around them.
- Driving into a Truck
- Driving Song
- Driving Stick
- Driving Test
- Driving Test Smashers
- Driving Up a Wall
- Emergency Cargo Dump
- Emergency Refuelling
- Emergency Taxi
- Enormous Engine
- Every Car Is a Pinto: A vehicle immediately bursts into flames no matter how minimal the damage.
- External Combustion
- Failing a Taxi: Taxis don't stop for a character.
- Faking Engine Trouble
- Fanservice Car Wash: Attractive attendants handwash a car, allowing them to be shown wet, soapy, and scantily dressed.
- Fauxrrari: A fake model of vehicle meant to represent a prestigious car without using its brand name, with Ferrari being a particularly common example.
- Fell Asleep Driving
- Flying Car
- Forklift Fu
- Free Wheel
- Futuristic Superhighway
- Gangland Drive-By
- Gasoline Lasts Forever: A car never runs out of gasoline and is never shown being refueled.
- Gas Siphoning: Stealing gas from another vehicle using suction and a hose.
- Getaway Driver
- Had the Silly Thing in Reverse: Accidentally driving a vehicle backwards.
- Hard Truckin'
- Hassle-Free Hotwire: Hotwiring a vehicle is portrayed as incredibly quick and easy.
- Hero's Classic Car
- Hippie Van: A retro van serving as transportation/a makeshift home for travelling hippies.
- Hollywood Police Driving Academy
- Honking Arriving Car
- Hood Hopping
- Hood Hornament: A pair of cattle horns is mounted on the hood of a vehicle.
- Hood Ornament Hottie: An attractive person poses on top of a car.
- Hot Paint Job: Flames painted on a vehicle.
- Hot Pursuit: A police chase involving dozens of police vehicles.
- Hubcap Hovercraft: A conventional vehicle can fly when its tires are rotated 90 degrees.
- Hummer Dinger
- Immortal Iconic Car: A particularly iconic car is never replaced or destroyed.
- Improbable Parking Skills" A Badass Driver is skilled enough to park anywhere.
- Improbably Cool Car: A character owns a car so cool it seems out of place with the locale or their finances.
- Invincible Classic Car: A classic car is shown to be virtually indestructible. This is attributed to "they built them better back in the day."
- Just Keep Driving: Cars don't stop, no matter what's happening.
- Kids Driving Cars: A person too young to drive legally finds themselves behind the wheel.
- Lives in a Van: A character's home is their vehicle, often a van.
- Matching Bad Guy Vehicles: All the bad guys drive the same make, model, and color car.
- Metallicar Syndrome: A car so distinctive that it should be a liability, isn't.
- Mid-Life Crisis Car: A middle-aged person buys an incredibly fancy, expensive, or impractical car.
- Missed the Bus
- Molotov Truck: A vehicle becomes an improvised weapon by loading it with explosives and crashing it into a target.
- Mommy Mobile: A boring but practical car meant for transporting families.
- Monowheel Mayhem: A motorcycle or other small vehicle inside a giant wheel.
- Motorcycle Dominoes: A row of parked motorcycles is knocked over.
- Motorcycle Jousting
- Motorcycle on the Coast Road
- Multi-Track Drifting
- Murder by Remote Control Vehicle
- My Car Hates Me: The car doesn't work correctly no matter what the driver does.
- Nitro Boost
- One-Wheeled Wonder: A vehicle that balances on a single wheel.
- Optional Traffic Laws: A piece of media, often a video game, where users are allowed to break common traffic rules without penalty.
- Parallel Parking: Parking parallel to the curb. This is portrayed as very difficult and can be shown to use a driver's inexperience (if they're bad at it) or expertise (if they do it with ease).
- Parking Payback: Revenge for taking someone's parking spot.
- Parking Problems: Making do with whatever parking space is available, even if it's unusual, illegal, or downright impossible.
- Passing Judgment: Character does something embarrassing in public and gets stared at by appalled passengers of a vehicle.
- Pedal-to-the-Metal Shot: A shot of a character's foot pressing the gas pedal all the way down.
- Pedestrian Crushes Car: A pedestrian causes serious damage to a moving car while remaining unharmed.
- Pimped-Out Car: A car with all the bells and whistles.
- Pit Girls: An attractive woman at the races who performs ceremonial duties such as waving the starting flag or bringing a trophy to the winner.
- Pop the Tires: Damaging a vehicle's tires in order to stop it.
- Post-Apocalyptic Traffic Jam: After the apocalypse, the highways leading out of the cities are jammed with long-abandoned cars that were attempting to flee.
- The Precious, Precious Car: A car is a character's most prized possession and they refuse to let anyone else touch it.
- Punk in the Trunk: A person hidden in the trunk of a car.
- Ram by Braking: Stopping your vehicle abruptly to cause your pursuer to crash into you.
- Resurrect the Wreck: An abandoned or derelict vehicle is restored to functioning.
- Rice Burner: A cheap but fuel-efficient vehicle, often of Japanese origins.
- Rock Star Parking: The driver always gets the best parking spot.
- Romantic Ride Sharing: Two characters bond by sharing a vehicle that holds only two (such as a horse or motorcycle), requiring them to be in close proximity.
- Running Over the Plot: Someone is hit or run over by a car, kicking off the plot.
- Safe Driving Aesop: The moral of the story emphases safe driving.
- Sentient Vehicle: The car is aware of its occupants and surroundings.
- Shag Wagon: A vehicle set up to facilitate love-making.
- Sinister Car: A car that is visibly up to no good.
- Stealing the Handicapped Spot: An unauthorized person parks in a handicapped spot to show their disregard for others.
- Sunroof Shenanigans: Using a sunroof to misbehave or have fun.
- Surprise Car Crash: A car crash comes out of nowhere, taking the driver and the audience off-guard.
- Tank Goodness: A tank portrayed as the ultimate vehicle for defense.
- Tanks, but No Tanks: Vehicles similar to (but not technically ) tanks are just referred to as tanks.
- Tanks for Nothing: Tanks are ineffective.
- The Taxi: A taxi and/or its driver is an important or central element of the story.
- That Poor Car: An event large enough to set off the alarms of multiple cars at once.
- Technically a Transport: A civilian vehicle is upgraded to withstand an attack.
- Thememobile: The vehicle is themed to match its driver's motif.
- Tour Guide Gag: A tour guide explains to their tourists the action happening outside their vehicle.
- Toyota Tripwire: A person or vehicle crashes into a car door that opens suddenly.
- Trapped in a Sinking Car: A character is trapped inside a vehicle as it goes underwater.
- Trojan Ambulance: An ambulance is used for a purpose other than medical rescue, due to the fact that people in general do not attempt to hinder ambulances.
- Unconventional Vehicle Chase: A chase using vehicles other than a standard car.
- Under the Truck: A chase scene in which another, smaller vehicle is able to pass under a big rig.
- V8 Engine Noises: A vehicle's engine makes the distinctive V8 revving noise, even though it does not have a V8 engine.
- Van in Black: A van used by a government agency for surveillance or a sting operation.
- Vanity License Plate: A car has a specialty plate reflecting the personality of its owner.
- Vehicular Assault: Using a vehicle as a weapon to harm others.
- Vehicle-Based Characterization: The character's car reflects their personality.
- Vehicular Kidnapping: Kidnappers throw their victim into a vehicle and drive away.
- Vehicular Sabotage: A vehicle is rendered inoperable.
- Watch the Paint Job: The likelihood of a car being damaged is inversely proportional to the owner's desire to keep it pristine.
- Weaponized Car: A car is custom-fitted with weaponry.
- Wiper Start: A driver attempts to start a car but only succeeds in turning on the wipers.
- The Workhorse: A vehicle which, while not the newest, fanciest, or prettiest, is incredibly tough and reliable.
