Basic Trope: The protagonist's personal vehicle is a car at least twenty years older than the setting.
- Straight: Alice, whose adventure takes place in 2023, drives a Fox-body Mustang (produced between 1979 and 1993).
- Exaggerated: Alice, whose adventure takes place in 2023, drives a Ford Model T (produced between 1908 and 1927).
- Downplayed: Alice, whose adventure takes place in July of 2023, drives a Ford Mustang GT built in July of 2003.
- Justified:
- Alice didn't have money for a car, so she inherited one from a relative.
- Alice's enemy, Bob, has a weapon that exploits modern automotive technology, so Alice sought out a car that didn't have the technology Bob exploits.
- Alice hot-wired a classic car on display out of desperate convenience.
- It's easier to install certain spy gadgetry in an old car that it is to install in a new one.
- Inverted: Alice's adventure takes place in 1987, but she somehow drives a 2023 Mustang.
- Subverted: When Charlie is showing Alice to her car, he leads her to a 1993 Mustang. Then they walk past it and over to a 2023 Mustang.
- Double Subverted: Then as Alice drives away in the 2023 Mustang, she gets into an accident. Charlie then gives her the 1993 Mustang until the 2023 can be repaired.
- Parodied:
- Alice goes to buy a car for use in her role as a protagonist. The salesman won't let her buy anything less than twenty years old.
- The car Alice got her hands on is a classic, but it was extensively modified for "pimp-my-ride" competitions and has very lousy performance. For further irony and parody points, one of the show modifications (such as the gigantic speakers) is a Chekhov's Gun.
- Zig-Zagged: During her adventure, Alice goes through several cars of varying ages. Some are old enough to qualify as classics, some are too new, and some are older than Alice herself.
- Averted: Alice's car is new relative to the timeframe of her adventure.
- Enforced:
- The real life car belongs to the director who allows it to be used in the film to save them the trouble of finding a car for the protagonist.
- Product Placement from Ford has Alice riding both the 2023 and 1965 Mustangs throughout the film with plans for an ad of said scenes spliced together and the tagline "We made them mean then. We make them mean now.”
- Lampshaded: "This is your car? Couldn't get anything newer?"
- Invoked: When Alice goes to buy a car for her adventure, she deliberately seeks out a car that's twenty years old or more.
- Exploited: During a car chase with Bob, he tries to lose her by using features of his modern car that he knows hers wouldn't have.
- Defied: When Alice goes to buy a car for her adventure, she tries to find something less than twenty years old.
- Discussed: "I have to go do this, but I need to buy a car first." "If you can afford it, try to find an older car so you can do it in style."
- Conversed: "People tend to get nostalgic for their youth. If you were to take a journey, you might buy a car that you admired when you were a kid but couldn't afford until now."
- Implied: We never see Alice's car, but the other characters comment on how much older it is than usual.
- Deconstructed: The performance of Alice's older car is not up to speed (so to speak) with the newer cars driven by the other characters. Also, the years of wear and tear have seriously hampered the build quality. Any damage done to the car takes longer to repair because the car's age makes it harder to find replacement parts.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice keeps the car properly maintained so that it still runs well. She's also modified the car to keep it running at a level comparable to more modern cars. She's also found a company that makes replacement parts for her particular vehicle and goes to them when she needs those.
- All Alice's old car needs to do is get her from her house to her job. The high speed chases she will do either with her assigned patrol car or by telling a "loyal citizen" to stop and scoot over.
'Eyyy! There's my prized, well conditioned mustang!
