Over the years, James Bond has driven some truly iconic cars, from Goldfinger's Aston Martin DB5 and The Spy Who Loved Me's submersible Lotus Esprit to the bespoke Aston DB10 seen in Spectre. 007 has, however, also been behind the wheel of some real dross.
To mark the spy's return to cinemas this month, we've compiled a list of the ones Bond would likely rescind his license to kill in order to avoid having to drive a second time.
Sunbeam Alpine - Dr No, 1962
In the first book, Bond drove a 1933 supercharged ‘Blower’ Bentley. (Fleming got his date wrong. The car ceased production in 1930.) In the first film? A Sunbeam Alpine. Not a bad car, but some distance from what you’d want to introduce the world’s least secret agent to the silver screen. An E-Type Jaguar – powerful, handsome and just a little rough around the edges – would have been far more appropriate.
BMW Z3 - Goldeneye, 1995
Product placement is as much a part of Bond as dry martinis, Walther PPKs and Q-branch, but parachuting 007 into this dull and slow roadster was just plain cynical. There are plenty worse cars on this list, but he arrived at them incidentally: they were not the big ‘This is what James Bond chooses to drive’ statement. The Z3 was. After six years off the screen, it was the only bum moment in an otherwise cracking Bond caper. No wonder it was barely used.
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