In movies like the first 'gone in 60 seconds' and 'The French connection' there are lots of cars getting smashed up, they were around that period so that's ok. But these days smashing up classic cars that are worth a lot of money is just wrong. Cheap cars like the Austin Allegro Ford Escort or Morris Marina deserve to be smashed.

Whenever you see a big car chase with nice cars that involve big stunts like jumps, chances are the filmmakers ended up wrecking numerous cars to create what you see onscreen, even if the cars finish the chase intact (in the film). In real life there's way you could do these huge jumps and still be able to carry on driving.

If they only dared to thrash and crash ordinary cheap cars, it would be pretty dull wouldn't it? I don't worry that anyone would ever deliberately ruin or jeopardise a rare, valuable collector's item (newish mass-produced cars are expendable), it would cost the production too much. Usually when the nice car finally blows up or gets smashed up they usually use a replica or a cheaper, less rare model of the car (eg. a regular Mustang dressed up to look like a Shelby GT500).

But even using regular classic Mustangs to smash up go through me cold. The Mustang is a timeless classic, especially the 1965 models. Yet, in 'American Gangster' a Replica Shelby Mustang was used in an explosion as I heard.

Concerning Mustangs I'm on your side, Leoz.

Thanks, wasserspeier! you can't beat a classic 'Stang!

This one really bothered me:
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=155539

I totally agree that the 60s Ford Mustangs are true classics, they deserve to treated with some respect, but what I couldn't care less about are some of the average, dull, unremarkable mass-market cars like the Austin Allegro and stuff like that, they don't need to be protected like the real classics (like the '65 Mustang )

which are sometimes less common than cars supposed to be rare/classic, as all were sent to junkyard

Precisely. Mass market cars are crushed without mercy and only few survive. Allegro or Marina is much, much more rare than a 65 Mustang and therefore more interesting to me. When was the last time you saw an Allegro on the road? I still remember in 2001 when I saw an Allegro Estate (one of only 3 in Finland) driven by an old man on his way to library parking area. At that time I didn't even know there was an Estate version of Allegro made. I hope it survived.

Austin Allegro had a square steering wheel. Far from dull.

It has been a while sice I saw an Allegro, but kids my age and lots of people think that 'classics' like the Allegro and Austin 1100 are just old boring old bangers, and in reality they are. Yet when we see a classic Jaguar or an American Muscle Car, we can't help but go over to it or follow them. The Allegro mostly came with square steering wheels and was claimed by salesmen and designers to be 'different', or 'exotic'. I agree that even the most undesirable cars should be kept as daily drivers.

Mass market cars become obsolete eventually, and many of them aren't considered special or unique enough to achieve generally recognized "classic" status, like the Ford Mustang, Chevy Corvette Stingray, that kind of thing.

I don't know what some people are worrying about because surely there will always be a few preserved models of these cars somewhere (museums, collectors etc), don't the main manufacturers (although ones like Austin don't exist anymore) keep their prototypes and final commercial release versions stored somewhere? The Vauxhall Vectra is common now, one day it'll be one of these "vanishing cars", but I don't think that'll make me care about it any more. And the day it becomes a priceless historical relic, I'll already be dead.

If it's a car or truck I like, whether it's mass market or not, I do tend to be disappointed. I loved the fuselage Plymouth Fury's especially, the 1972's. So while the Fury that was wrecked in the Wendy O. Williams video "It's My Life" wasn't a 1972(at first), and it contributed to the overall mayhem that made it so enjoyable, the fact that it was a 1969-73 Fury was somewhat of a let-down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MsQlHgmSb8

And Taxiguy, I agree with you on the CrownVic.

Cars not it production shouldn't be destroyed, unless they are ugly! NEw cars should be destroyed as quick as possible!

The big junkyard Kiesow in Norderstedt, just North of Hamburg, offers "car-bashing" for its customers:
http://www.spiegel.de/auto/fahrkultur/0,1518,550775,00.html

Every dead Smart is a good Smart.

A car chase without at least some cars being wrecked or damaged is no fun.

In my case it depends on what cars are wrecked or damaged.
OK for me: National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Not OK for me: Iron man

Maybe I should visit a psychologist to fix my silly attitude

The R8 is a recent one, still in production, and having it seen there will probably help to sell more. In addition of that, as the cars were provided by Audi, it was maybe even not normal retail versions (though that it is easier for them?)

If nice cars get destroyed in an exciting scene in a good movie, then that's absolutely fine with me. As long as the scene is done right, I've not got a problem with it.

However, what I do dislike seeing is nice cars getting wrecked in AWFUL movies. Transporter 2 is a movie so awful that I can't even put it into words, and it even annoys me to see a ten a penny Crown Victoria get destroyed in a completely worthless movie like that, especially in really absurd scenes with supposedly professional law enforcement officers driving like utter morons.

http://imcdb.org/vehicle_71262-Morris-Minor-1957.html
This classic Morris Minor is blown up in an utter abortion of a movie. How many of these can there be left in the USA and they had to destroy it?

http://imcdb.org/vehicle_130013-Ford-Mustang-1966.html
The movie wasn't awful, but this final scene was not only criminally wasteful, but also immensely stupid. Read my comment on that page for more details.