In many episodes, you see the Simpsons riding in a pink station wagon. As a result, I was thinking about what real-life car would come close to representing the Simpsons. This car would definitely not be luxurious, so here goes:
1980's Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile or Buick full-size station wagon.
Early 1990's Chevy, Oldsmobile, or Buick full-size station wagon.
Any AMC Pacer, Concord, Gremlin, or Sportabout.
Any early Hyundai, especially the Excel.
Late 1970's Plymouth Volare or Dodge Aspen wagon that starts rusting in the fenders after 12,000 miles.
1980's Chrysler K-Car wagon - especially the LeBaron Town and Country with the fake wood! Chrysler even had a Lebaron Town and Country convertible with that SAME fake wood! Homer could commute to work in that car!
Homer would also look appropriate in a '75 Cordoba with Corinthian leather.
In fact, I remember Homer driving in a '73 Dodge Charger while he was singing Steve Miller's "The Joker". That episode was when he met Marge for the first time!
Ever since I defeated him in the ATS regular-poster March Madness tournament, he's disappeared. I think he's wallowing in his own misery over te defeat...
In alt.tv.simpsons, on the "What kind of car would fit the image of the Simpsons?" thread, Tim Hall wrote:
If you're thinking of Marge's wagon, I notice that it has the taillights mounted low in the bumper. The late 70s Chevy Mailbu wagon had this arrangement. (They switched from two semicircular lamps to one square lamp in the 80s.) As far as I know, there isn't any other American car with this style, making the Mailbu the closest match to Marge's car. Of course, the front end doesn't look Malibu-ish. I like to think of both Simpsons cars as being products of Powell Motors, before Kumatsu bought them out.
If you blinked you'd have missed it, but in 1968 Mercury offered the fake-wood treatment for some of its full-sized cars. Chrysler/Imperial might have done the same in the early 70s, but I'm not certain of this. These hulking cars would be even more appropriate for Homer, I think.
------ A (circa) 1974 Chrysler Newport. Homer bought it cheap from a "friend of a friend". He thinks he's only the second owner, but he's really the fifth. The convincing feature was the odoometer's reading of only "48,128". Little did Homer know that it had been stuck there for some 60,000 miles. This car would've been pretty old at the time of the first episode of OFF, and is getting increasingly rusty/dented/worn out. But reliable, nevertheless.
Homer was attracted to the car because it had a rebuilt 318 cubic inch engine. He got it *cheap* because the engine couldn't make this heavy car accelerate any faster than a houseboat against heavy current. The handling's rough, and it corners like a parade float. When turning, a strange "grunchy" noise issues forth from the front end's bushings.
The interior: vinyl bench seats, with the driver's seat all mushy due to broken springs. The occasional rip in the vinyl, again, mostly on the driver's seat (a folding seat cover is employed here to hide the mess). The ceiling fabric had started to drop in one corner. The dashboard has a large crack from the heat of the sun over the years. The carpeting is very worn, the driver's door armrest cracked, and there is some kind of gunky-gooey crud in the little recesses around the vent openings.
This car could take a beating, and does. The vinyl top is torn somewhat, the antenna is an old coathanger, the fender skirts are missing, the bumpers are losing their chrome, and there are quite a few spots of surface rust, with the bottoms of the doors even rusted through.
The brake pedal is mushy, the driver's side mirror is loose, the passenger's mirror has broken off entirely. The interior mirror shakes- even when the engine is off.
The windshield has a ding from a wayward rock hit. The sides of the car sport various little dents from the doors of other cars and/or unmanned shopping cars- who knows?
The muffler has that soothing rumble that tells you that it's time for a new one. The little cover that protects the trunk lock is long gone. Ditto the chrome that seals the rear window.
But this car is loved like "one of the family".
If you're over 40 years old, you probably knew someone who owned a car very similar to this one.