8 TV cars viewers still recognize decades later, including a Magnum P.I. Ferrari that sold for $181,500

Long before streaming, a single car could make a television series unforgettable. Some were purpose-built stars, while others were ordinary vehicles that viewers came to know as well as the actors behind the wheel. Here are eight TV cars that audiences still recognize decades later, and what became of several of them.

1. KITT (Knight Rider): The Talking Trans Am

KITT, the Knight Industries Two Thousand voiced by William Daniels, was a 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in Knight Rider. Of the roughly 23 to 25 cars built, only five cars survived, according to Wikipedia’s entry on the character.

That low survival rate makes any authentic KITT a rare piece of television history. A talking Firebird was an unlikely co-star, yet it became the character many viewers remember first, and it keeps drawing fans decades after the series ended. Its owners today are custodians of a very short list. Few television props have been copied as often.

2. Ferrari 308 GTS (Magnum, P.I.): Magnum’s Auction Star

A 1984 Ferrari 308 GTS that Tom Selleck drove in the 1984-85 season sold for $181,500 at auction through Bonhams, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

CBS used about 15 cars while Magnum, P.I. was in production on Oahu from 1980 through 1988. Three model years appeared on screen, 1978, 1980 and 1984, so the car that sold at an Arizona auction was one of several stand-ins for the same hero. The price stands as a reminder of how much television fame can add to a used sports car. Bonhams handled the sale.

3. Ford Gran Torino (Starsky & Hutch): The Striped Tomato

The police partners of Starsky & Hutch drove a bright red 1975 Gran Torino with a large white vector stripe added, as described in Wikipedia’s Ford Torino entry.

Ford built replica versions at its Chicago plant in spring 1976, a sign of how strongly the show’s car appealed to the public. Sources differ on how many replicas were made, so the exact total is best left open. Its bold stripe made the car easy to recognize even from a distance, which is part of why it stuck in memory long after the show ended.

4. GMC Vandura (The A-Team): The Black Van

The A-Team’s black 1983 GMC Vandura, the original van from the series, was displayed at the New York International Auto Show in 2010, according to Cheapism.

A work van is an unlikely star, but this one became a lasting symbol of the show. Its 2010 display suggests that fans and organizers still valued the genuine article roughly a quarter century after the series first went on the air. For a show built on improvised getaways, the van was as much a character as any member of the team. The van’s black finish made it easy to spot.

5. Ferrari Testarossa (Miami Vice): Miami Vice on Wheels

A 1986 Ferrari Testarossa from Miami Vice sold in 2017 for $151,800, according to Cheapism’s roundup of famous television vehicles from the 1970s and 1980s.

That price sits below the $181,500 paid for the Magnum Ferrari at auction earlier that same year. The source gives few details about how the car was used on screen, so the sale is best read as a snapshot of lasting fan demand. Miami Vice made the Testarossa a fixture of the decade’s television imagery. Cheapism lists it alongside the A-Team van and Rockford’s Firebird among famous vehicles.

6. Pontiac Firebird (The Rockford Files): The Rockford J-Turn

Jim Rockford’s 1974-78 Pontiac Firebird lent its name to the Jim Rockford J-turn, a maneuver described by Cheapism as helpful in chasing, or running from, the bad guys.

Few cars can claim a driving move named after the character behind the wheel. The name shows how deeply the Firebird became tied to Rockford, and it still turns up whenever fans of the series trade favorite moments. It is a small detail, but details like this are what keep a series alive in conversation. Cheapism includes the Firebird in the same roundup.

7. Checker Marathon (Taxi): New York’s Yellow Star

The opening titles of Taxi show a Checker cab driving east across the Queensboro Bridge, and the taxicabs shown in the series were Checker A11s, according to Wikipedia.

The sequence placed the sitcom in New York within its first seconds. The cab itself became part of the show’s identity, so a car built to carry strangers around town ended up carrying a whole series. That kind of steady presence in the credits explains why the cab is still associated with the series. Cheapism includes the cab too, among the famous vehicles of the era.

8. Batmobile (Batman): A One-Dollar Concept Car Turned Icon

George Barris built the television Batmobile from a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car that he had bought from Ford for $1, and he had only 15 days and a $15,000 budget to finish it for the Batman series. When Barris finally sold the original in January 2013, it brought $4,620,000 at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale auction, the first time the car had ever been offered for sale.

Barris kept the car for decades and sent it on tours of car shows and museums, which helped it stay familiar long after the show left the air. Replicas built to its pattern still turn up at shows today, and the bubble canopies and long rear fins remain instantly recognizable to viewers who watched as children.