Zombieland is a car lover’s dream. First, it’s a road movie. But there’s more. The film begins after a virus has infected the world, killing most, turning some into zombies and leaving a few regular folks to fend for themselves against zombies trying to eat them at every turn. Because Zombieland is essentially a planet-sized ghost town where people were literally plucked from their lives in the middle of mundane tasks, cars are strewn everywhere. Many of them are wrecked and beyond repair, but some are in fine working order, and if you can find one that a zombie isn’t living in, it is yours for the taking.

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Getting a car in a big movie is a huge deal. Films like Transformers and Fast and Furious have contributed to the publicity machine surrounding several vehicles. And now Subaru is thrilled to have a car (their WRX STI) in the new Fast and Furious movie.

The exposure a top-rated film can offer to a car manufacturer is enormous. Car companies are anxious to get their hottest, newest vehicles on the big screen, because consumers are just as much into image and style as they are into performance and reliability. The young demographic that will flock to see Fast and Furious will undoubtedly be attracted to the new Subaru.

It ends up being a mini infomercial within a film—something that would have cost Subaru a pretty penny if they had tried to produce it on their own.

“Fast & Furious” is directed by Justin Lin, the man behind the third installment, “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,” stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez, Jordana Brewster, John Ortiz, Laz Alonso, Gal Gadot, Shea Whigham, Tego Calderon and Liza Lapira is set for a April 3, 2009 release.

Portions of an article and a related video that appeared last week on www.edmunds.com after the jump:

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The Yugo was Soviet Bloc Yugoslavia’s greatest automotive export. It was soooooo bad that it was good! The Yugo was a car where “carpet” was listed as a standard feature. Boasting a rear-window defroster was reportedly to keep your hands warm while you pushed it. The official name for the Yugo was Zastava Koral, because the cheap, subcompact was built by the Zastava corporation. Unlike many Eastern European cars at the time, the Zastava factory had major ambitions to sell to Western markets, especially to the imperialist Yankee pig-dog oppressors in America. Created with the help of Fiat designers and marketed for young people, only 45 original Yugos were handmade on that legendary date in crappy automotive production, October 2^nd 1978.

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Chevrolet is bringing back all the old favorites. First, it was the Camaro and now it’s the Corvette Stingray, which they recently unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show.

When Chevrolet started their pitch to get both post-gen and young drivers interested in what they touted as the “Return of the Camaro” the marketers at GM decided to place the car in the first Transformers movie. It turned out to be a very smart move. As Bumblebee, the new Camaro was a big star in the highly successful film and definitely generated some major buzz.

(Photos after the jump)
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As long as there has been presidents there has been cars driven by presidents. Okay, this actually only goes as far back to 1909 and the notable William Taft. Little trivia fact about our first presidential driver, Taft was also our fattest president. If Taft were around today by no means could you stuff his fat presidential rear-end into a smart Car.

Though Taft liked to consume mass amounts of food, don’t think he was not fuel-efficient. The roly-poly president had four official presidential limos: a White Steamer, a battery-powered Baker Electric, and two Pierce-Arrows. More than any other White House resident, Taft was the most Green in the automotive respect.

It doesn’t stop there. Here are a few more notable presidential cars driven by our country’s leaders.

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By Harmon Leon

Celebrities love a smooth ride. Where would celebrities be without their wheels? Sure they have the money to be toted around in limos, but a celebrity with an awesome car shows not only their status, but also their sensibilities; be it a massive SUV or fuel efficient electric vehicle—it’s their statement to their fans. Celebrities are larger than life, and so should be their vehicles.

Here are a few celebrity cars that really turn heads on the road:

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My dream is to have the Pimp My Ride posse makeover my car so it has a cotton candy machine and a disco ball hanging dead in my backseat dance floor. Man, who doesn’t love the MTV show where the GAS team (who always cringe when the vehicle rolls into the shop), along with rap superstar Xzibit, do their magic on the biggest clunkers on the road. The result is a pimped out masterpiece, which features wild and maybe impractical ostentatious features. Those whose ride has been pimped always end up going ape-shit when they witness their Phoenix that has risen from the ashes.

Here are my five favs from Season 5:

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In the 1968 movie classic Bullitt, Steve McQueen took to the streets of San Francisco in a revved up 1968 Highland Green Mustang GT 390 Fastback as he chases two hit-men in a “Tuxedo Black” 1968 Dodge Charger R/T 440 Magnum.

Getting air off the hills of SF
What follows is the greatest car chase ever filmed. Bullitt has nine minutes of tire-squealing thrills through the streets (and air) of San Francisco. What made the car chase scene groundbreaking, Bullitt was the first movie to show close-up shots of the driver which added more realism to the scene. The director called for speeds of 75–80 mph, but the cars reached speeds of over 110 mph on surface streets. The chase scene took three week to film, during which the Charger lost six hubcaps and has different ones missing in different shots. Even now, Bullitt is the measuring-stick by which all movie chase scenes are stacked up to.

Video of the Mustang Bullitt after the jump
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What would video games be without cars? Most likely they would be “car-less.” But what would be the greatest video game cars of all time? Don’t think it’s about time that someone out there on the InterWeb would decide to compile a list of these computer-generated-gaming vehicles? Well, thank bloody goodness for Jalopnik (who incidently is “obsessed with the cult of cars”) to compile a list of their fav joystick operated four-wheel-obsessions:

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With the era of gas-guzzling SUVs fazing out with the general public, surely the same would be said with our country’s superheroes and crime-fighters. Which fuel-efficient cars would make the ideal match with popular superheroes?

Smart Fortwo: The Thing

There’s nothing dumb about smart cars. Once a sole fixture in quaint European villages, smart cars have been popping up all over our American roadways. This car would make the perfect vehicle for The Thing from the Fantastic Four. Trapped in his monstrous form, the smart fortwo would show off The Thing’s sensitive side as well as being fuel-efficient.

More super match ups after the jump
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Growing up as a kid watching the ’60s CBS TV show The Munsters, I fell in love with the cars featured in the series. The most famous of these was the Munster family car – the Koach –but I always had an affinity for the Drag-u-la. The Drag-u-la (driven by Grandpa) was a funkadelic dragster with a laid-back, hippy vibe. The Wayans Brothers are currently producing (but not starring in) a remake of the popular series. Surely, they’ll bring back the famous Koach, but will they also resurrect (or re-design) the Drag-u-la? I vote “yes!” Basically a coffin on wheels, the Drag-u-la appeared in just one Munsters episode (Hot Rod Herman) and in one of the two Munster movies (Munster Go Home) in 1966. The vehicle had a fiberglass body molded from a real coffin and featured a bubble canopy and a purple velvet interior. The body sat on a dragster-type tube frame, and accessories on the Drag-u-la included organ pipe exhausts, a drag parachute, air scoop and racing slicks. Grandpa (Al Lewis), a vampire, owned the vehicle. Designed by George Barris, who also built the Koach and the Batmobile, the Drag-u-la was classically eerie in appearance, but was also the real thing and packed some horsepower punch, supplied by a 350 hp Ford Mustang Engine. Will this amazing vehicle make a scary comeback next year? We’ll keep you informed.

Batmobile (Tumbler) - The Dark Knight. Christian Bale returns as everyone’s favorite Dark Knight in The Dark Knight. Though Heath Ledger almost steals the whole show donning the Joker’s maniacal makeup, one of the true stars of the movie is the famed Batmobile. Looking like a light tactical vehicle that could storm at ease through the streets or a war zone.

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By Adrienne Gruben

If I’m driving when Chuck Berry comes on singing, “As I was motivatin’ over the hill/I saw Maybellene in Coup de Ville/A cadillac arollin’ on the open road/Nothin’ will outrun my V8 Ford” I better not be in Buda, Texas, the Mother of all speed-traps. Thank God I live in LA and am usually stuck on the 405. That came out wrong. “Maybellene” has two heroes, and she’s not one of them. Everyone knows songs where the heroes are made of sheet metal. Lately, these heroes have been getting demoted. It’s like scapegoating Batman for all that ails Gotham.

Last week, GM, Ford and Chrysler appeared at the doorstep of House Speaker Pelosi asking for money like those kids who sell candy bars door to door. Turns out that last quarter GM spent 6.9 billion dollars, cut 2200 jobs and saw its sales fall 11%. Ford spent 7.7 billion, and Chrysler is in the same boat car. There are 2-3 million jobs that rely on the auto industry, from factory workers to the guys selling steering wheel covers. The big question is whether to bail out more companies, or risk the economic domino effect of letting them go under. The public seems mostly outraged by another proposed bailout, some of whom cite the automakers’ failure to the consumer.

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In case you’ll be sitting in front of your TV tonight, sporadically being interrupted by little anklebiters dressed up in their Halloween best, here are a few recommended fright flicks starring murderous automobiles.

Duel - Stephen Spielberg’s feature film debut. Features your average “Joe Six Pack”, aka Dennis Weaver, on a business trip being chased by a possessed tanker truck. Highlight of the flick is when the truck pushes Weaver’s Plymouth Valiant into the path of an oncoming train. Here’s the full length version in Google Video.

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