MovieChat Forums > National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) Discussion > Car getting crushed makes no sense

Car getting crushed makes no sense


Wow, the things movies DO just to force something implausible to happen, sheesh.

I LOVE this movie, I think it's daring, hilarious and one of those 'lightning in a bottle'-type things that can't be repeated, no matter how you try (so better make something original).

However.. the car-crushing scene always bothered me. There are SO many things wrong, something like that could never happen in real life. Reasons? OK, let's see.

1) Clark would never park the car in a place where they can so conveniently fetch it to be crushed

2) He would've LOCKED the car, so no one could've driven it away from that place (it would be on a curb somewhere probably, and the salespeople and mechanics wouldn't even know where it is or what it looks like)

3) Clark DIDN'T give his consent or sign a contract or ANYTHING, so technically that's an act of vandalism and a crime, for which the corporation/mechanics/salespeople/etc. could be SUED for, so they would not do that.

Why would they just take and crush it immediately? How unrealistic is that?

4) There's definitely going to be a 'backlog' of some kind when it comes to this kind of stuff. Car firms don't just take a customer's car and crush it and have nothing to do for the rest of the day. They would be swamped with work, and to get that kind of 'special service' would require weeks of waiting after an appointment - if they really crush cars THAT easily, they would have LOTS and lots of backlog of cars to crush! There are SO MANY CARS in that particular country (even back in the day), they would be swamped.


5) To think of it, since when do they CRUSH CARS at the same, exact place where they SELL them? The constant crushing noise from morning to night would drive customers not only away, but also mad. Not to mention the salespeople. Carlots need to be only disturbed by car sounds, so the customers can peacefully walk around and check which lemon they will be scammed to purchase. They wouldn't like seeing cars getting crushed all the time, or hear the sound.

6) What's the MOTIVATION for the car-crushing anyway? WHY do it? It's a perfectly good-looking, certainly 'drivable' (if this is a word) car. A sneaky car-oil-salesman wouldn't WASTE such a great opportunity to scam some rich old woman to sell them a perfect family car like that. They could get a lot of MONEY out of selling that car, but instead, they just IMMEDIATELY CRUSH IT!?

This movie is telling us this salesman is very sneaky, greedy, manipulative, your typical car salesman, and yet he's perfectly OK crushing a perfectly good car he could've gotten a perfectly oversized commission from? It makes no sense.

7) They crush it without CHECKING it at all. Not only could there have been private property, valuable objects, wallets, money, keys and memorabilia inside the car that should've been removed first (or how about consulting the OWNER before doing ANYTHING to someone's car?!), or there's another lawsuit just waiting to happen - "They crushed my daughter's favorite japanese doll given to her by the japanese emperor, Hirohito, so I demand 8 million dollars for reparations".. do they really WANT to invite something like this to their business? -

...but also, what about gas tank and such, that could explode or at least start burning if there's even a TINIEST spark somewhere convenient (can you honestly tell me you can crush a car without creating even a possibility of a spark)?

8) Cars are usually crushed in a proper facility, somewhere 'far away', that has equipment designed for that. Why would a regular 'car shop' (for the lack of better term) HAVE any of this equipment? Are they there to _SELL_ cars or _DESTROY_ cars?! You can't have it both ways, why would they destroy cars at all??

9) THey never CHECK the car before crushing it - I mean, is it viable, is it good, how many miles, are the tyres usable or reusable, how's the engine, what about the general condition, and so on and so forth. How the hell do you destroy something without even checking it first at all?

Also, can anyone here HONESTLY (!) tell me that a car that Clark was clearly able to drive from his home to the 'car shop' (car store? car saleslot? What the heck do you call these things? My brain doesn't work very well in the summer heat) is immediately deemed completely 'unsellable' and thus need to be immediately crushed?

10) Can you also tell me car salesmen are SO honest and ethical, they would NOT sell a car that has some small problems or faults or a bit too many miles on it to some unsuspecting customers? Really? We're shown a sneaky, manipulative character, and then we're supposed to believe they're so honest they'd rather DESTROY a car that might have some problems than try to polish it on the surface and sell it anyway?

_REALLY_!?!?!?!?!?

In any case, there are PROBABLY more points and reasons why this could never, ever happen, and why it happening so quickly crushes our suspense of disbelief with the car, but -no more space-.....

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"2) He would've LOCKED the car,"

No he wouldn't , you see Clarke lives in movieland . No one in a movie has ever even rolled the window up , let alone locked the car , when exiting it.

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The dealership wanted to unload that piece of garbage they called the family truckster, so they rushed to crush his car, so he had no other option but to buy that car. Its a sneaky move

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OP: This "dealership" didn't seem shady to you? The dealer claimed not to know where the car that Clark bought was, he's trying to bait and switch AFTER the supposed deal was done, the dealer doesn't know Clark and Rusty's names (You should've known at least Clark was coming to pick up his car today)….. I really don't think crushing Clark's car was that far off from what this dealer and his company would do.

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That's a lot of thought put into one thing in a movie. Perhaps shift your efforts to finding a cure for cancer.

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True and funny post

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