Following to comments made by 93montero, I launch this poll.
http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=486804
http://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=43938

There was a similar one, years ago, which decided the current state.
Maybe people's taste changed? So let's ask again

The problem with solutions 1 (current) & 2 is that in some cases a useful part of the image is missing, and if the car is only in the bottom or top of the picture it may even not be visible on the thumbnail.
The problem with solutions 2 & 3 is that black borders appear in non-2.35 images.

Examples

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_486888-Nash-Statesman-Super-5048-1950.html

1:


2:


3:


http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_479151-Honda-Civic-1992.html

1:


2 & 3:


I can make other examples if you ask for a particular picture