Expert: Mel - 4/23/2008

Question
Hi Mel! I know this is probably a stupid or crazy question but are any of the cars the characters drive 5 speeds or stick shifts? My sister and I were talking about this a couple weeks ago and the question came to me again today. There are little hints to say they were. For example in the Pilot episode David tells Steve he can't drive a stick shift when he has to drive Steve home. In the same episode Kelly tells Steve, "I drive an automatic thank you very much" then in the next episode she gets her red Beemer. Then in season 6 when she is driving her dad somewhere he says to her, "you're pretty good at driving a stick shift" or it was something to that effect. I'm also guessing Dylan's Porsche is a stick shift cause after Brenda drives it he tells the guys she grineded the gears every time. You can't really ever see the inside of their cars on the show to know if it's an automatic or stick shift. Do you know if any of them are in fact automatics or stick shifts?

Answer
Hi Kaelyn,

I think you're right, and that exactly the characters you mentioned (Kelly, Dylan, Steve) are the ones who drive cars with stick shifts, though possibly Brandon too.  This was an interesting question.  Unfortunately, I don't know much about cars in general, so my view of things could very well be askew.  

When it comes to Kelly, the quotes cited above pretty much seal the deal for me.  She's driving the same car in S6 that she always has and what her father technically says is that she's a good driver and he never could teach Jackie how to drive a stick shift.  Although many things changed since the Pilot, K's line, "I drive an automatic, thank you very much", was one of her first and quite well-known.  I think the writers would have kept it in mind.

Steve's situation is also uncomplicated.  Aside from references in the Pilot, we can actually see the inside of his Corvette briefly in "The Game Is Chicken", S3, at the point where he finds the chickens that Joe Wardlow placed inside as a prank.  There is a stick shift.  This is fitting considering he enters a drag race in that episode and sometimes goes on similar joyrides throughout the series, like when he tries to catch up with con-artist "Ginger" in "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window", S3, or when he races Clare in S6, "Snowbound".  You can also see him use the stick once him and Andrea arrive outside the club in "U4EA", S2.  As a sidenote, while reviewing scenes, I noticed that his girlfriend Celeste drives an automatic as well ("Radio Daze", S4).  

Dylan is another character who admits to racing his car, at least in the past tense.  Even a vintage Porsche (the black one he drives for most of the show is a 356 Speedster model from 1961).  So this makes me think that he would have some sort of multi-speed automation.  But it's hard to ever see.  It sounds like Dylan pulls back a stick shift when he and Brenda arrive in Mexico ("Mexican Standoff", S2), he goes to confront Brandon about hitting on Kelly ("A Pig Is A Boy Is A Dog", S4), he spots Clare with Brandon outside the Peach Pit ("Divas", S4), and when him and Kelly break-up ("Vital Signs", S4).  Actually, in the last case, it looks a bit like it too, but only from a far distance.  We get a view into his car in "Intervention", S5, before his near-fatal plunge off the cliff, but I found no evidence.  It does look like his second Porsche, the silver 911 model he owned for one episode ("Strangers In the Night", S4) had a stick shift because his hand appears to be resting on something akin to it when parking outside of Kelly's apartment and again just seconds before the carjacking.  

For Donna, I looked at her dropping off and picking up Brenda in "Misery Loves Company", S3.  She seems to reach for a stick very briefly.  But then, in other scenes such as the final drive in "Commencement", S3, driving with Kelly and talking about Europe in "The Girl from New York City", S4, and discovering Rocky the dog/driving off with Brenda in "Change Partners", S4, I get the impression that her car is more basic and low maintenance.  She only seems to turn the key and go, very simple and quick.  I thought I could get a glimpse of the inside by watching the scene in "The Little Fish", S4, where she discovers she melted David's demo reel inside her glove compartment, or the one where the girls are talking in her car before rushing the Alpha House ("Greek to Me", S4), but no.  The episode in S8 where she injures her back in an accident while driving the new black jeep ("Cupid's Arrow") also didn't provide any clues.

I think Andrea was only seen with a car once her affair with Peter began in S5.  Needless to say, we only caught glimpses of that from Dylan's point of view, and from a distance.  David driving is also relatively rare.  I watched the car scenes from "A Ripe Young Age", S7, but couldn't find anything.  Further investigation would point towards random scans of S5, where he'd be in a car with Clare.  

Now, Brandon.  Or Brenda and Brandon, I should say.  "Mondale", the original car from the first 11 episodes, was as un-Beverly Hills as they come and often mocked, so I'm guessing it wasn't an automatic.  In "Pass/Not Pass", S2, Jim ultimately agrees to pay for a classic "289-V8" Mustang convertible to be rebuilt for Brandon, after it breaks down.  During that first drive beforehand, it does seem that he grabs a stick shift while in traffic, but I can't be sure.  Throughout "Ashes to Ashes", S2, where he drives Robinson Ash around and gets into a car accident with his sister, Sharice, there was no evidence of such a thing.  In "U4EA", we only catch an overview of his car once it's gutted.  His road trip to find Emily two years later also didn't reveal anything, at least not the long intro scene with him on the road.  There are a few prominent instances where Brenda drives his car.  Namely, "Leading from the Heart" and "A Competitive Edge", S2.  I can be sure that she used a stick to put the car in reverse because she says so out loud in a closing scene, but I'm starting to think that's common for all cars.  And that would really put all of this into question, LOL, where we can only be sure that Kelly and Steve are driving automatics.  The close-up of the contract inside her car that Brenda forgets to deliver for her dad in "Radio Daze" and the auto show that the boys go to in "I Only Have Eyes For You", S7, can also be scratched off the list of possible scenes with clues. Maybe the real question for Brandon's Mustang is whether we believe Jim would spring for the extra cost of rebuilding the car with a stick shift feature after his son racked up so many expenses getting the car towed and being ripped off by a used car salesman without getting a warranty.  

Have fun continuing to debate this with your sister!  The amount of scenes which feature characters driving is, I'm afraid, endless.

All the best,

Mel