Automobiles
Many apocryphal stories concern the automobile, which Richard M. Dorson in his 1959 survey of American urban legends called “the chief symbol of modern America.” The mobility and convenience provided by the family car, the hazards of driving, the allure of cars to young and old alike, the mystiques of different models and makes of cars, the costs of car ownership, the technical aspects of cars and driving, and the relationships with other drivers all figure in the voluminous legendary lore of automobiles.
The legends range from the supernatural plot of “The Vanishing Hitchhiker” to the believable everyday situation depicted in “Revenge of the Rich” (in which the driver of a luxury car deliberately crashes into a poorer driver’s car after losing the race to a parking spot). As automotive technology advanced and sophisticated options became standard, new legends emerged, yielding stories about such things as automatic transmissions, cruise control, and air bags. Sometimes when dramatic events make the news, an updated car legend soon follows. For example, shortly after the 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens, new versions of “The Vanishing Hitchhiker” circulated in the Northwest claiming that a mysterious woman in white had been encountered hitching on Interstate 5 and warning motorists of a second eruption to come. Similarly, after the 1989 Bay Area earthquake, a legend emerged about a car thief who was flattened by the collapse of a freeway section while he was driving a BMW stolen from the World Series parking lot at Candlestick Park.
Some automobile legends concern simple mishaps, such as changing a flat tire (“The Nut and the Tire Nuts”) or forgetting someone (“The Wife Left Behind” and “The Baby on the Roof”). Others deal with accidents (“The Body on the Car”), often specifically accidental amputations (“The Hook”). Car-related crime is a popular theme represented in such legends as “The Killer in the Backseat,” “The Slasher under the Car,” and “The Double Theft.”
The automobile is merely in the background of legends focusing on sex humor such as “The Solid Cement Cadillac” and “The Unzipped Mechanic.” The car is in the foreground in stories that focus on technical incompetence like “Push-Starting the Car” and “ ‘R’ Is for Race,” although the first of these also has a gender-related theme whereas the latter is often told as a racist story.
Among the most popular automobile urban legends are those that represent fantasies concerning inexpensive and highly desirable cars. Some people (always friends of friends) are said to have discovered mint-condition vintage vehicles hidden away and available for a song; friends of friends are also described as discovering a $50 Porsche being sold by the disgruntled wife of a man who left her for another woman. One of the longest-lived and most popular American urban legends about automobiles is “The Death Car.” It combines a cheap-car fantasy with the almost supernatural motif of the ineradicable smell of death; as the legend has been told and retold over many decades, the makes and models of smelly cars have changed, the manner of the owner’s death has varied, and the price of the bargain car has increased to match inflation. Today’s $500 Corvette with the bad smell permeating the fiberglass body was yesterday’s $50 Buick with odiferous upholstery.