The best TV show cars of all time and where they are now

Wiggles Photo: Facebook

Countless movies have been defined by the cars they use as the star – Mad Max with the XB Ford Falcon, countless James Bond Aston Martins, Gone in 60 Seconds with the Eleanor Ford Mustang, and Dukes of Hazzard with the Dodge Charger.

But what about the TV show cars – which seemed to kick-start the love of cars for many people, and even why people tuned in each week for a new episode?

We run through the best TV cars and where they are now to get you feeling nostalgic, and maybe even planning a binge-watching session of these old shows.

Get Smart holds a special place in many people's hearts. It offers a comedic take on the James Bond movie series in 30-minute episodes.

Despite first airing in 1965, the series seems to transcend multiple generations. It caught a second wind in Australia, airing on free-to-air Australian TV just after school in the mid-to-late 2000s.

For the first two seasons, Maxwell Smart (played by Don Adams) drove an absolutely gorgeous 1965 Sunbeam Tiger. It was in top trim, too, and powered by the 4.3-litre Ford V8 that was found in the Ford Cobra at the time.

It was a seriously cool and rare car, even for the time frame. Rootes Group was a small manufacturer out of London, England, known for other brands such as Humber, Hillman, and even Talbot.

If wasn't always supposed to be a Sunbeam. The Tiger replaced a Ferrari PF 250, found in the pilot episode, as the star car, most likely due to the cost of doubles in the case of a crash scene and repair costs if an accident happened.

The Tiger had a body double in the form of the Sunbeam Alpine, which was virtually the same but with a slightly different trim and a four-cylinder engine. This is because the machine gun that popped out of the bonnet in some scenes was too cramped to fit with the V8, so they just rebadged an Alpine, but all shots without the machine gun were a Tiger.

The Sunbeam was later replaced by a Volkswagen Karmann Ghia convertible for seasons three and four, and then a beautiful Opel GT for seasons five and six before the show was axed.

When the 2008 film adaptation was made, the directors could not find a genuine Tiger, so they had to use an Alpine and record the sound of the engine from a car borrowed from a collector in Los Angeles.

Don Adams bought the original car after the show finished filming before passing it on to his daughters, who allegedly crashed it. However, it is believed that Hugh Hefner bought the car and had it on display at the Playboy Mansion.

Sunbeam Tigers occasionally come up for sale in Australia for around $100,000.

One of the most iconic TV cars of all time is the Volvo P1800 from the English TV show The Saint.

The Saint followed Roger Moore as Simon Templar, a career thief and master of disguise, and was a TV show that made its way from the turn of black and white to colour broadcasting midway through its series.

The Saint was well known by car lovers because it featured the Volvo P1800, a large sporty coupe from the Swedish manufacturer that has seemingly been forgotten about in the 21st century.

Volvo approached Moore, who was also one of the producers, to use the P1800 as the hero car because they saw the possible promotional value in having their newly introduced model on the screen after Jaguar rejected a request for the E-Type.

The E-Type was the hot car at the time, featured in many films and TV shows. It was likely that a funding deal could not be reached with the British marque.

The P1800 was powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine and was developed by Volvo to compete in the US and UK sports car markets.  

As far back as 1957, the P1800 was in its final hand-built concept stage, but Volvo was struggling to find anyone to build the car. Volkswagen was originally keen but then worried about competing with its new Karmann.

Other German companies, such as NSU and Hanomag, were also considered, but they turned down the contract because they did not meet Volvo's quality control standards.

Finally, Jensen Motors (UK) took on the contract to build 10,000 cars, and production finally started in September 1960. Less than three years into the contract, Volvo was unhappy with Jensen's quality control, so in 1963, Volvo moved production back to Sweden and continued making the car in its factory.

The production crew had three P1800s for the show. One was found in 1991 sitting on a North Wales farm, rotting away before it was painfully reconstructed to like-new condition in 2013. The next was blown up for a scene in the show. And the third belonged to Roger Moore himself after he fell in love with the car during the show's shooting.

Moore sold the car to Martin Benson, who acted alongside him in Goldfinger. It then changed hands until Bill Krzastek refinanced his home to buy the vehicle and restore it. It was seen in an episode of Jay Leno's Garage. Eventually, it was donated to the Volvo Museum after Moore died in 2017.

You can often find a Volvo P1800 for sale in Australia anywhere between $35,000 and $80,000.

You can't talk about cool TV show cars without mentioning Miami Vice. The '80s crime drama follows Crockett and Tubbs as undercover detectives in Miami looking to bust drug dealers.

The star of the show was the gorgeous 1972 Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS/4. The pair drove it for the first two-and-a-half seasons, or so we thought.

The Daytonas used for the show were replicas built on a C3 Chevrolet Corvette chassis, purchased for the low price of $USD49,000 per car. The real deal was simply too expensive, and Ferrari North American turned down the producers' requests to use the vehicles in the show. McBurnie Coachcraft in the US built the car bodies, while Scott Draizin constructed the interior.

If you know anything about Ferrari, you'd know it is fiercely protective of its brand image. So, when the company found out that Miami Vice was using replica cars, a lawsuit was opened to demand that the replicas be handed over.

Ferrari offered two genuine 1986 Testarossas if the Daytona replicas were destroyed. The producers took this deal, and the Testarossa was used in season three of the show.

Weirdly enough, less than a year after the lawsuit, McBurnie Coachcraft was the victim of an arson attack and the replica Daytona that lived there was badly damaged.

After this, the two replicas were never destroyed. Instead, one lives at the Volo Auto Museum in Illinois, US, and the other is in a private collection.

Despite the legal issues, Miami Vice still used replica Testarossas built by Carl Roberts for stunts. Roberts said, "Why beat a real Ferrari to death with power slides and 180s or mar its flawless skin with camera mounts for tight driver's shots when a stand-in stunt car could do the job quite nicely?".

Want a Daytona Spyder? Good luck. You'd need around $AUD5 million to get one now.

This couldn't possibly be a list of famous TV show cars without mentioning the Starsky and Hutch Ford Gran Torino, which graced the screens of every crime-show-loving family from 1975.

Much of the show featured the "Zebra Three" pair ripping through the streets of Los Angeles in their 1974/1975/1976 Ford Torino (depending on the episode).

The studio first considered a green and white Chevrolet Camaro because the creator, William Blinn, had owned one and remembered it fondly. However, cars were offered up as part of Ford's Studio and TV Loan Program, which allowed producers to lease cars in various conditions to suit the needs of their shoot.

Photo: sfoskett

The beauty shot cars were 1975 models powered by a 351 Windsor V8, similar to what was found in the XR and XA Australian Falcons, and optioned in the iconic Bright Red.

Other than the white stripe up the side of the car, some different shocks in the rear, and five-slot alloy wheels, the car remained the same as it was from the factory.

Before the shooting began, Paul Michael Glaser, who played Starsky, was shown the car for the first time and immediately hated it. He still hates it to this day.

Multiple interviews revealed that Glaser thought it was big and ugly, he thought it was silly that undercover cops would drive around in such an obvious car, and he simply did not like Ford products. Glaser later dubbed the car "the striped tomato", which was actually worked into the show.

The show helped the car's sales so much that in 1976, Ford released a limited-edition 'Starsky and Hutch' Gran Torino, which is a highly desirable car today.

After filming ended, the two beauty cars were given back to the Ford Lease Program and sold at a company auction later that year.

The first car changed hands multiple times, moving from a fan in California for a year to a US Air Force officer who had it for 17 years before exchanging hands with someone in Ohio in 1988.

He owned the car until 2012 when it was sold to the Stars Motor Museum in the United Kingdom. It then made its way back to the US, where it changed hands two more times and now lives in Texas, where it has been restored.

The second car was scrapped but found as salvage by a collector. It was subsequently painted the wrong shade of red and, at one point, had a V6 in it. It changed hands multiple times and was restored to its original condition as it was on the screen. It still resides somewhere in the US.

You're out of luck if you want one in Australia. While a few people have imported them, they rarely come up for sale. However, you can find one in the Starsky and Hutch livery for around $USD30,000 ($AUD50,000) in the States and import one yourself.

How can we pass up possibly the most iconic Australian TV show car, Big Red Car, from The Wiggles? This vehicle has gone through many renditions since its debut on the show in 1995.

The original Big Red Car was made from plywood and cardboard in 1995. It was used in the show for two years before it was retired, but it briefly reappeared in 2020 with Jeff, Anthony, and Greg standing behind it in a social media post. It is believed to still be in the studio's storage unit.

When the show became a movie in 1997, there was a need for a real car. Godfrey Reade built the car off what we can identify as an original Volkswagen Beetle, based on the front suspension and rear engine design we spotted.

The fibreglass shell underwent several changes throughout the years and was used in the TV show until 2002 when it was retired. Still, it was used for various exhibitions from 2002 until 2017.

It was last seen in 2016 when Dorothy the Dinosaur broke down in it during a Dreamworld Parade Event. It remained on display until 2017 and is believed to still be in the storage unit at Dreamworld.

A secondary car was built in 1997 and used in the TV show and live performances until 2008.

It was much shorter than the original and appears to be based on a golf cart chassis instead of a full-sized car. The fibreglass shell again underwent numerous changes and was shipped to the US in 2004, where it was used for American shows until 2008. The whereabouts of this generation of Big Red Car is currently unknown.

The third was relatively similar to the second generation, but the fourth generation was built in left-hand drive to be used for shows in the Americas and Asia.

Finally, the fifth-generation car was built by Rosemonts & Co in Botany, New South Wales, circa 2012, and is still used alongside a mock car for studio shoots and live performances.

If you want one of these cars, you'd be unlikely to pry it out of Hot Potato Studios's hands.

Zane Dobie comes from a background of motorcycle journalism, working for notable titles such as Australian Motorcycle News Magazine, Just Bikes and BikeReview. Despite his fresh age, Zane brings a lifetime of racing and hands-on experience. His passion now resides on four wheels as an avid car collector, restorer, drift car pilot and weekend go-kart racer.

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