Del Boy and Rodney’s iconic yellow three-wheeled Robin Reliant takes poll position in a list of the greatest on-screen vehicles, beating the high-flying Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Herbie, the 1963 Volkswagen Beatle. The survey, conducted by Carmoola, put James Bond’s silver Aston DB5 from Goldfinger into fourth place, no doubt leaving the spy a little shaken and stirred that his car was outmaneuvered by Doc-Brown’s time-travelling DeLorean from Back to the Future.
Carmoola, a newly launched car financing service, calculated the monthly finance payments for the most iconic film and TV motors with eye watering results. One of the DeLorean’s used in the hit 1985 movie, sold for close to £400,000 in 2011. Without a deposit, calculations show that to buy the gull-winged ‘time machine’, you’re going to need to find £12,294 every month for three years at a rate of 6.9% APR - which is probably beyond the reach of most Back to the Future fans - and that’s without the crucial flux capacitor included in the price.
A yellow three-wheeler used in the much-loved Only Fools and Horses TV series sold for £38,000 at an auction in 2021. The repayments for the 1972 Reliant Rebel Supervan III - half a century old - would amount to around £800 a month, over 48 months, with a deposit of £3800.
Any list of best-loved screen cars wouldn’t be complete without an Aston Martin and 007’s DB5, which came fourth. One recently sold for £5.2 million following its use in promoting 1965’s Thunderball film.
Even an extraordinary deposit of £100,000 would struggle to dent the £104,423 a month payment for five years required to drive away. In fifth place was KITT, the legendary talking car from the 1980s and 90s TV series Knight Rider featuring David ‘The Hoff’ Hasselhoff. The motor – now minus the KITT computer system - fetched £225,000 when Hasselhoff sold it last January. The Pontiac Firebird would set the average Knight Rider fan back £6,916 a month if they wanted to pay for it in three years at 6.9% APR.
Herbie, the VW Beetle from the 1963 movie Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, came sixth. In April 2018, the 1963 Volkswagen Beetle that starred as Herbie in Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977) and Herbie Goes Bananas (1980) were snapped up at Barrett-Jackson's Palm Beach auction in 2015 for $126,000 and exactly three years later at the same auction on April 14, 2018, it sold for $128,700 (£98,000) to become the world's most valuable Volkswagen Beetle for a second time.
Buying the legendary bug in sterling would set you back £98,000, and without a deposit that would equate to three years of monthly payments of £3,012.
The Ghostbusters Car sold at Barrett-Jackson’s Las Vegas 2021 auction, held from June 2021 for $220,000 (£169,000) Borrowing £169,000 with no deposit tots up to four years of monthly payments of £4,023 at 6.9% APR.
The Batmobile came eighth in the poll. The caped crusader’s vehicle of choice took on many different guises during the superhero’s string of popular TV shows and seven movies. The original model used in the 1960s – based on a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car - sold for £3.2m ($4.2m) in June 2013. Owning this piece of movie history would leave an astronomical £62,898 - sized dent in your bank balance every month if you paid for it over five years without a deposit
Aidan Rushby, CEO of Carmoola, an app that provides drivers with a budget and finance decision in sixty seconds, giving people the freedom to pay for a new set of wheels instantly with a virtual card, said: “As far back as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on-screen cars have stolen our hearts as much as the characters, and that is still the case today.
“But having the heart rule the head when making a car purchase isn’t a good thing. Our research shows nearly a quarter of (24%) Brits have bought a car without a clear idea about what they could spend or afford.
“And over a quarter (27 per cent) have searched for cars in the past with the intention of buying, without knowing if they could afford the finance or loan.
“It’s easy to get carried away when you set eyes on a gleaming piece of metal, but most of us don’t have the film-star salaries to make the payments."
Carmoola, which also provides free vehicle checking, vetting for accident history, mileage adjustments and outstanding finance, also costed up another desirable classic in less-than-desirable nick - the Inbetweeners yellow Fiat Cinquecento.
Having been sold on eBay as part of Comic Relief’s 2011 fund-raising campaign the clapped-out car went for an eye-popping £15,000 following an intense bidding war. Boil that down into a zero deposit and 36 monthly payments and the old banger will set you back around £460 a month.
The stunning orange Toyota Supra which featured in The Fast and The Furious films, was driven by the late Paul Walker and was recently sold at auction for £417,000 ($550,000 and you’re going to need to find a staggering £9,926 a month if you opted to pay for it over four years.
World’s Most Iconic On-Screen Vehicles - TOP 10
Del Boy and Rodney’s yellow three-wheeler from Only Fools and Horses (42%)
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (31%)
Doc-Brown’s time-travelling DeLorean from Back to the Future (31%)
Silver Aston DB5, driven by James Bond in Goldfinger (29%)
K.I.T.T from Knight Rider (28%)
‘Herbie’ - the 1963 Volkswagen Beetle (23%)
Ghostbusters Car (The Ectomobile) - from 1984 movie Ghostbusters (22%)
Original 1960s Batmobile (20%)
The Inbetweeners yellow Fiat Cinquecento (11%)
Orange Toyota Supra driven by the late Paul Walker in Fast & Furious (9%)
