Basic Trope: Vehicles in fiction are usually portrayed as more resistant to damage than they'd be in Real Life.
- Straight: Two cars in a chase scene scrape against one another. Next time we get a good look at either car, there's no visible damage whatsoever.
- Exaggerated: A car plows straight through a truck trailer and emerges without a scratch.
- Downplayed: There's no more than a small dent in one door.
- Justified:
- The car is indestructible due to Applied Phlebotinum.
- The car has been ruggedized for the owner, whose business operates in inter-mob-territory.note
- Inverted: See Every Car Is a Pinto.
- Subverted: The car appears to be indestructible, but finally falls apart at a suitably dramatic moment.
- Double Subverted: The car appears to be indestructible, but finally falls apart at a suitably dramatic moment. All it takes is some frustrated pounding on the steering wheel to get what's left moving again.
- Parodied: The car survives a drop from orbit and hits the ground running.
- Zig-Zagged: The car takes the damage, but, beyond all credibility, is fully functional.
- Averted: The car takes damage in realistic fashion.
- Enforced: The car is Product Placement and the sponsors don't want it showing any damage.
- Lampshaded: "They sure don't make cars like this anymore!"
- Invoked: The protagonists stop their car in front of the villain's escaping vehicle, knowing full well that it's the villain's car that won't survive the impact.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: The car is equipped with a bomb that will go off if the vehicle takes too much damage.
- Discussed: "Yeah, like my car would survive all that without a scratch..."
- Conversed: "I'm surprised that that car is still moving after a hit like that."
- Deconstructed: The car is indestructible; the driver and passengers are not.
- Reconstructed: Having noticed the advantages of an indestructible car, and after testing the scope of this characteristic, the Hero decides to take full-advantage of this phenomenon.
- Implied: The Badass Driver talks about driving through a massive battle, but their car is in mint or near-mint condition.
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