cars in movies

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i must have that brain worm that makes you
notice cars instead of people
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this article is pretty simple

it's a list of cars i like
appearing in movies i like
and a few words about why i like that car, that movie, or both

yes i know what this list says about me
no i haven't come to terms with it yet


citroën xm
ronin (1998) and lola rennt (also 1998)

i love all the big citroëns but the xm is one of my favorite cars
of all time; the shape of the car and the styling embody
everything i love about cars of the 1980s:
it's a sleek, comfortable executive car
in the shape of a boxy hatchback (thanks bertone)

i'd argue the citroën xm is the last "real" citroën. the xm already
watered down the citroën quirkiness quite a bit compared to the cx
but it still had a lot of the unique features like the hydropneumatic
suspension, the single-spoke steering wheel, etc.

its successor, the c6, lost most of the remaining charm and now there
is no "big citroën." the ds9 is probably closest and it's a
completely unremarkable luxury sedan.

the xm features more prominently in ronin since it's involved in a
pretty great car chase; in lola rennt the xm is really
just in the background so it's easy to miss.

interesting note: these two cars are both pre-facelift versions
(you can tell by the off-center logo on the grille)
even though the movies came out
about 4 years after the design was updated


renault avantime
children of men (2006)



the renault avantime is probably the coolest minivan ever sold. not
only does it capture a lot of what i think is good about early 2000s
car design (THE ANGLES) but it has a lot of really clever (and weird)
features that were underappreciated at the time.

i have to talk about the doors. the avantime's crazy doors
are why it works as a 2-door coupe and as a minivan. the doors use a
double-hinge system that allows them to open in tight parking spaces
even though they're over four feet long.

the way renault stretched a coupe into a minivan shape reminds me a
bit of the hyundai ioniq 5 actually - it's hatchback-shaped but it's
secretly the size of a compact suv.

the avantime doesn't exactly feature prominently in the film but
its silhouette is pretty unmistakeable and there's an important
scene that would have probably been much harder to film without the
avantime's weird stadium-style seating. the avantime's futuristic
design also fits right in with the post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting;
you could hardly build a better prop


peugeot 207 cc
tokyo sonata (2006)



ok, i promise this is the last weird french car

the peugeot 207 cc stands out to me mostly just because of its looks;
i actually only know about this car from seeing it in the movie.
apparently it's not especially good to drive but i'm just looking
at it and it looks cool to me.

i think what i like most about the 207 cc is how it seems like they
ran out of space after they design the front of the car; it has this
long hood and steeply raked windshield followed by a tiny roof and a
short trunk that looks just big enough to hold that tiny roof.

the scenes the 207 shows up in definitely need to feature a
car, although there's really nothing that depends on the 207 in
particular; any relatively sporty car could have probably filled the
role but i'm glad they picked something interesting


saab 900 turbo convertible
sideways (2004)



i would get a yellow one but red is ok too

like citroën, i love saab because they had a point of view.
they had some specific ideas about how cars should be built and
didn't really care if that was what the mass market wanted. saab also
pioneered a lot of features that are common today but at the time
made their cars very unique - stuff like standard seatbelts, direct
fuel injection, turbocharged engines that don't need premium
gas - a lot of those on the 900.

i think i also like this car because, like the xm, the 900 is
arguably the last "real" saab. the next model, the saab 9000, might
also be worthy of this title but it used a platform they codeveloped
with fiat so even if it is
the best car saab ever built it still gets an asterisk.

in 2000 saab was bought by general motors so naturally they were
expected to share parts and platforms with other gm cars, meaning
they made a lot of really, REALLY boring cars in the early 2000s
before gm killed the brand in 2011.

sideways features miles's saab 900 pretty prominently; the movie
takes place in california so there are a lot of driving around scenes
where this car shows up. a dilapidated saab 900 also feels like the
right car for a recently-divorced struggling writer/english teacher.

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written by peter beard on 2026-01-15, last updated 2026-01-15
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