Top 10 Most Iconic Hollywood Movie Cars

Sami Haj-Assaad
by Sami Haj-Assaad

With the 89th Academy Award Winners set to be announced this weekend, everyone is talking movies, even us gearheads.

The folks at HPI and have also been thinking about cars, specifically iconic cars in movies, and what they might be worth today. With HPI recently launching a vehicle valuation service, they’ve also provided a total sum of what these cars cost back then, and what they’d be worth now.

All 10 of these cars when new would come in at £30,362 or $37,940 USD. However, if you were to buy them today, it would be a significantly more expensive collection. HPI suggests that based on modern valuations of the cars, the whole collection would cost £3,002,500 or $3,753,125. Talk about a sweet return!

“We thought it would be fun to come up with a definitive list of the most iconic cars to feature in the movies from the past 50 years and look at their values then and what they’d be worth now,” said Philip Nothard, consumer and retail editor at HPI. “Some of the cars featured are bona fide classics and worth a significant amount now – warranting pride of place amongst any car collection.”

Here is HPI’s Top 10 listing of the most iconic movie cars ever along with some classic and modern valuations.


10) 1977/2009 Chevrolet Camaro – Bumblebee from Transformers

Sam Witwicky’s Camaro from the Transformers movies is the first iconic car on the list. The car starts off as a second-generation 1977 Chevrolet Camaro, but then adapts a more modern skin as a 2009 model. We wonder if the HPI valuation also took into consideration the alien life-form that’s living in the Camaro. Bumblebee is practically a war hero, and that’s priceless.


9) 1970 Dodge Charger – Vin Diesel’s car in The Fast & the Furious

According to Dominic Toretto, the anti-hero played by Vin Diesel in the Fast and the Furious movies, this 900-horsepower 1970 Dodge Charger was built with the character’s dad, but was never driven until that famous scene in the first film, which led to him destroying it. It gets rebuilt and he drives it in the fourth movie and it pretty much gets destroyed in that film, too.

It returns in Fast 5, where Detective Hobbes (played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) crashes into it and destroys it again. Fortunately, it survived a house explosion in Furious 7, but gets destroyed again during the final showdown of the film. Iconic or not, it seems kinda unlucky.

[Photo Credit: Universal Pictures]


8) 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 Fastback – as seen in Bullitt

Dark green with a 6.4-liter V8 engine under the hood, this is truly an iconic car and it had a starring role in one of the greatest car chase scenes of all time. Ford issued Bullittthemed Mustangs in 2001 and in 2008, and there are some rumors that a modern Bullitt Mustang is on the way too.


7) 1980 Lamborghini Countach LP 4005 – as seen in Cannonball Run

Another iconic car — not just in the movie world — is the Lamborghini Countach. With its outrageous styling, a poster of this car was found on every gearhead’s wall back in the 1980s and ’90s. According to HPI, the car in this movie would be worth somewhere around £275,000 or $343,883 USD.


6) 1966 Alfa Romeo 1600 Spider Duetto – as seen in The Graduate

The Alfa Romeo featured in The Graduate wasn’t a perfect car, and in several scenes sounds like a V8 instead of the four-cylinder model it really is. As is common with Italian cars, the Alfa’s reliability is also questionable. Despite this less than stellar appearance in the movie, Alfa actually made a Graduate trim level of the Spider, though it was a few years later.


5) 1968 Austin Mk I Mini Cooper S – as seen in The Italian Job

The Austin Minis featured in The Italian Job deserve a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the awesome stunts they pulled in the movie. Who doesn’t love an old British Mini?


4) 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

In the movie, the main character Ferris convinces his friend Cameron to borrow his father’s rare 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California. It sounds like a great idea, but it all comes crashing down by the end of the movie. Real gearheads shouldn’t be too upset, though, since there were many replicas and fake 250 GTs used in the film, and no real ones were harmed in the making of the movie. Interestingly, if you were to buy one of these cars in 1961, it would cost you just £6,326 or under $8,000 USD. Today, it would cost you more than $2-million USD.


3) 1963 Aston Martin DB5 – as seen in various James Bond movies

The 1963 Aston Martin DB5 was used in several James Bond movies, the latest of which was in the 2015 film Spectre. Back in 1963, however, the car would cost about £4,175 or $5,222 USD. Today, it would be worth more than $1-million USD.


2) 1963 Model 117 VW Type 1 Beetle – as seen in Walt Disney’s Herbie movies

It’s hard not to think of “The Love Bug” when you see an old Type 1 Beetle, so the placement of this car on the list is nothing surprising. We love the quirky Beetle and the movies just wouldn’t have been as interesting if the car was, say, a Toyota Corolla, which was apparently considered.


1) 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 – as seen in the Back to the Future trilogy

The most iconic movie car according to HPI is the 1981 DeLorean DMC-12, featured in the Back to the Future trilogy. A time-traveling classic, the car is hard to find in good condition these days but always elicits quotes from these awesome movies.

[Source: HPI]

Sami Haj-Assaad
Sami Haj-Assaad

Sami has an unquenchable thirst for car knowledge and has been at AutoGuide for the past six years. He has a degree in journalism and media studies from the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto and has won multiple journalism awards from the Automotive Journalist Association of Canada. Sami is also on the jury for the World Car Awards.

More by Sami Haj-Assaad

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  • David Nease David Nease on Aug 02, 2017

    Where's the 1977 Trans Am from Smokey and the Bandit? Are you serious? Your list loses all credibiity with out it. Hack

  • Jim Haglund Jim Haglund on Sep 12, 2017

    What about the GMC Motorhome. It was the Urban Assault Vehicle in Stripes, among other movies

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