What’s The Best Vehicle From A Holiday Movie?

Autopian Asks Argyle
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I love cars and I also love holiday movies, whether they be old standbys like White Christmas or more modern films like Four Christmases. Just last week I curled up on the couch with my kiddo and, at her request, watched Elf. Then I watched Elf again.

Because I’m a car person I can’t help but notice every car in every film, like a living and breathing IMCDB. Holiday films tend to include a lot of vehicles as holiday films often involve a lot of traveling. There’s one particular one I’m not going to mention because it’s slightly too obvious, but it involves travel and you are welcome to choose it.

The debate over whether or not Die Hard is technically a Christmas movie is the most cliché argument one can imagine, but it ends with “Let it Snow” so I’m going to say it is a Christmas movie. In that vein, there are a number of excellent vehicles to choose from, but my absolute favorite has to be limo driver Argyle’s 1986 Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine.

Here’s how the Die Hard Fandom page describes it:

A variant of the Lincoln Town Car, the first generation stretched limousine has a long body, four-wheel drive, two dual headlights, and three glass windows on both sides. It is also equipped with a CD player, CB radio, full bar, a telephone (as shown when Argyle speaks to McClane), VHS player, and a television.

This is an extremely ’80s car and represents a kind of late Cold War American aesthetic that died with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the introduction of the 2nd generation Ford Taurus. So that’s my call. What about you? What’s your favorite holiday film car?

Top photo: 20th Century Studios

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125 thoughts on “What’s The Best Vehicle From A Holiday Movie?”

  1. Another honorable mention has to be the baby blue Lincoln Continental Convertible in Christmas Vacation driven by the in-laws. I remember realizing what that car was as a kid and just wanting it to be in more scenes.

  2. How is there any debate about Die Hard being Christmas film? It takes place at a Christmas party. The line “now I have a machine gun ho ho ho” makes no sense at any other time of year.

    Urgh.

    Anyway, I nominate the Bell 206 Jetranger from The Thing.
    If you don’t think it’s a Christmas film you’ve clearly been having much, much jollier Christmases than I have.

        1. Yes, because no one’s employer hosts Easter parties.
          On the other hand, IAWL has nothing to do with Christmas at all until the final scene. And that absolutely could have been Easter instead.

          1. Hmm, well, Nakatomi Securities USA’s Christmas party was also a dual purpose celebration to commemorate a recent big deal they closed (we don’t know if they actually do a big Christmas party every year or not, this one might be a special thing because of that), so, if you wrote it as the deal closing in Q1 1988, you could justify the company having a big party on Easter (March 31st that year), and because of the timing, the party planning committee might have chosen some Eastery colors and decorations – then everything else falls into place.

        2. Is Home Alone a Christmas film? The plot would be the same at Easter.

          Even most of the movies starting an actual Santa would have the same plot if you substituted any other lead character with a tight deadline.

          Any of the versions of a Christmas Carol work just fine with three ghosts of May Day. It’s just set at Christmas.

          1. Is Home Alone a Christmas film? The plot would be the same at Easter.

            How?!? Who has a family that goes away for Easter? Who lives on a street where the entire street goes away for Easter!?!?

            1. Thanks giving then, or the summer holidays. Plus the guy next door is at home, so it’s not the whole street.

              Burglars work all year, people go away at any time.

              Home alone could be set at any time before cell phones.

    1. Oh, you just reminded me. So my answer is officially the black Dodge Charger he sells when he starts at the job. That scene alone started my interest in that car.

  4. The single cab GM pickup driven by Fozzie Bear in A Muppet Family Christmas.

    Really just wanted an excuse to reference the best Christmas movie of all time.

        1. I had the same as well – ’94 Sedan DeVille with the 4.9 – dark green with a butterscotch interior. One of the nicest cars I’ve ever owned, a great road-trip machine. Bought it with 100,000 miles, drove it to 199,000 with almost no issues before trading it for a ’75 Eldorado.

  8. Since you didn’t specify which holiday…the Chrysler LeBaron from Planes Trains and Automobiles. Wood paneling and all.

    “The radio still works!”

    1. 40 years later and I’m still trying to figure out why there was so much steam pouring out of the back of that Bug.

      I’m also trying to figure out why a single drop of water from an eye dropper on the back of Gizmo is enough to pop off an offspring but hundreds of them shuffling around in “to them” chest deep snow which has to have some wet slush in it doesn’t trigger any procreation. I’ve got questions!!!

      1. If I remember correctly, one of the film’s writers said that it had to be a full liquid for the spawn to happen. Ancient chinese secret and all that.

    1. I thought about that, if just because the scene where they first got it was filmed right across the road from my old place (and as such, I’ve seen Kurt Russel in a Santa suit from like 200 ft away).

  14. I’m going to go a bit obscure here and say the Griswold’s snotty neighbors’ Saab 9000 from Christmas Vacation.

    That or the R1 from Arthur’s Christmas.

  16. There is a lesser-known Christmas movie from 2000 called ‘The Family Man’. It stars a rather subdued Nicolas Cage along with Tea Leoni, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Piven (also subdued, thankfully), and the father of the kidnapped woman in ‘Fargo’.

    Cage plays a pretty wealthy businessperson who has a ’99 Ferrari 550 Maranello.

    4. Cage has a 550 Maranello in that movie? But he’s seen 3 of them parked outside of the local Starbucks just this morning! He’s just a self indulgent wiener with no taste!

  17. If you’re going to claim “Die Hard” as a holiday movie, I’m claiming the original “Lethal Weapon” and Martin Riggs’ GMC R30 Crew Cab Pickup. In the later movies he drove a GMC Sierra 3500 Crew Cab dualie, but they weren’t holiday movies.

    1. Everybody’s all like, “‘Die Hard’ is a Christmas movie!” like Mel Gibson’s first scene in “Lethal Weapon” doesn’t literally take place at a Christmas tree lot.

  20. “Some men are Baptists…others Catholics…My father was an Oldsmobile man.”

    Gotta go with Ralphie’s Dad’s “Oh Fudge” ’37 Oldsmobile from A Christmas Story. The only car known to freeze up in the middle of summer On The Equator!

  21. What a fun and novel way to post the traditional “Die Hard is a christmas movie” post. For me I’m going to say whatever classic pickup truck the production company rented for the handsome protagonist in every hallmark movie that takes place in a rural wooded area.

  22. Wait…

    Argyle’s limo is four wheel drive? I’ve seen Die Hard many times, and I do not recall a scene that establishes that all four wheels are driven. Is there a shot of the interior with a transfer case lever visible or something?

    1. I haven’t seen it in a long while, but doesn’t it get one axle hung up at some point, and it is still able to drive off? He rams someone or something?

  24. Santa’s Sleigh in Elf.
    Its just peak hot rod. (sidenote: I’d love for The Bishop to tackle redesigning the sleigh)

    After that… Eddie’s “tenement on wheels” or maybe the cab from Scrooged? The train (dining car, specifically) from White Christmas?

    1. That dining car in White Christmas also served as a time machine. Somehow they go from Vermont-Manhattan, and vice versa, about 18 times in 3 days. The time space continuum in that movie drives me crazy.

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