We’ve had The Simpsons in our lives since 1989, and for those 28 years, Homer has driven the same car (aside from a few exceptions because the show has done everything): That junky, boxy, pink sedan. It’s been one of them most recognizable vehicles in popular culture for the past few decades now, and yet, we haven’t known just what kind of vehicle it actually is, and while fans have tried, nobody’s been able to come up with a concrete answer.
Thankfully, the show itself has come through, as in the most recent episode, Pork and Burns, it’s revealed that the car is a 1986 Plymouth Junkerolla ( via Jalopnik).Previously, fans believed that the car was a 1973 Plymouth Valiant (although the show has previously said the car was made in Croatia from old Soviet tanks). Let’s compare the two:
We see the resemblance, but as the car-savvy folks at Jalopnik point out, the car being a 1986 Plymouth model makes sense as it does look a lot like a Plymouth Reliant (which by the way, is the same car driven by Principal Ed Rooney in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). As they put it, “I remember these cars well, as one of my best friends in high school had a hand-me-down one, and I can confidently say they’re one of the saddest, most miserable boxes of crap you’d ever have the misfortune of driving, slowly and painfully. That means it’s the perfect platform for Homer’s car.”
Jalopnik goes on more about how and why this fictitious vehicle probably came about based on real-world cars and parts, so read up more on that here.
Images: Fox, The Truth About Cars
