Things You Could Buy Instead of a Classic Movie Car

Some of the motors used in film go to museums or on parades / displays across the world, depending on what type of vehicle we’re talking about. Others end up in collectors’ possession or hit the auction block, selling for sums that we’d think twice before spending on any other item. Make that thrice, four times... a gazillion times.

The bottom line is that movie cars are expensive and the more iconic the car, the more money you’re likely to shell out on it. In case you ever wondered what else you could buy for this kind of dough, MoneyShake pulled out all the figures and did the math. Looking at 8 of the most iconic movie car props and the prices they sold for recently, they came up with equivalents for other stuff you could buy for that exact same amount. Not surprisingly, you would be muuuuch better off if you spent your money on the other stuff.

Take, for instance, the most famous James Bond car in the world: the Aston Martin DB5, first seen in Goldfinger and expected to make a splashing return in the upcoming No Time to Die, which will be Daniel Craig’s final outing as the legendary 007. More recently, the DB5 sold for £5.1 million, which is a little over $6.5 million at today’s exchange rate.

That’s a lot of cash whichever way you look at it, but if you’d like to get into specifics, know that, for this amount, you could rent an Aston Martin DB11 for 180 years, buy 34 Bentley Continental GTs (it’s not an Aston Martin, for sure, but it’s also more than just one car), or get 849,949 Blu-rays of the original Goldfinger movie. We’re not sure what you’d do with so many copies of it, but hey, we don’t judge.

The Batmobile from the Batman TV series, i.e. the one that started the whole Batman-madness that still rages today (Batfleck and Zack Snyder be damned), more recently switched hands for over £3.6 million ($4.6 million). Seeing how it was originally a Ford car that one of the producers bought for $1 and then pimped up over the course of 3 weeks, you can definitely see why it’s overpriced. Consider this, too: for the same kind of money, you could rent a BMW i8 for 216 years or buy 58 Lexus LCs. Or you could also treat yourself to 192,955 Blu-rays of The Dark Knight trilogy.

The DeLorean Time Machine is also another instance of priced up movie car, especially considering what a huge flop this car turned out to be. It sold for £427,140 ($550,000), which is 18 times the price you could get another DeLorean that wasn’t featured in any film, or the equivalent of renting a Jaguar F-Type for 52 years or buying 8 Lotus Evoras.

That’s enough math to deliver the message, although the list could go on to include the KITT from Knight Rider, the Ecto-1 from Ghost Busters, the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 from Fast & Furious 8, the Mystery Machine from Scooby-Doo and Walter White’s Cadillac Sedan DeVille from Breaking Bad (the car he traveled in in the final episodes, not the atrocious-looking 2004 Pontiac Aztek he drove at the beginning of the series). You will find the figures for these, too, in the gallery attached.

The bottom line is that movie cars are expensive and in every single instance, without fail, overpriced. Like, way overpriced. Then again, when you’re buying a movie car, you’re not really buying a car per se: you’re buying a piece of (movie) history. We could argue that your money would be better spent otherwise, that you could take a more practical approach to dispensing with your more or less hard-earned cash, but that would be missing the point.

What we’re saying is that, while price-comparing movie cars to other stuff you could get for the same amount is a fun and interesting exercise, it is ultimately pointless. Just like comparing apples and oranges. Because no one buys a movie car for practical reasons.