Iconic cars per country:
American continent
The US has multiple examples:
- Movies, TV shows, and music videos set in New York City will frequently feature the famous Checker Marathon taxicab even to this day—once a common sight across major cities in America, however, the last one rolled out of the factory in 1982, and the very last one on the streets of New York was retired in 1998, already heavily worn out and on its last legs. More recent works will depict the Ford Crown Victoria, though even that was discontinued in 2012.
- Though the continued prevalence of the Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car as police cars, taxis, and limousines in contemporary media is somewhat explainable as they make cheap production assets, seeing them continue in these roles in animation is more difficult to rationalise beyond recognisability and iconic status.
- Media set in the hoods of Los Angeles frequently feature lowriders based on models such as 1960s Chevrolet Impalas or Lincoln Continentals. While many of these are still well preserved to this day, you're not going to see them driven as poor folks' hoopties (which was more common in the early 1990s, during the height of the hip-hop culture, as back then they would've been a little over 25 years old).
- The Deep South or other poor, rural American settings may feature pickup trucks from the 1950s to 1970s even well into the 21st century.
- The wood-paneled station wagon is still seen in media as the quintessential family hauler of North American suburbia, even though they mostly fell out of favor in the 1980s and haven't been produced whatsoever since 1996.
- In some American series such as The Wire, the related 1973-1979 Dodge Colt
will appear. Due to the car's reliability (for its era), this car often appears in movies set in The '80s and even The '90s.
Asia
In works set in Japan, the 1979-1983 Mitsubishi Lancer will often be present.
Europe
Media set in Italy will inevitably feature the Fiat 500. While it was ubiquitous once thanks to nearly 4 million units produced over nearly 20 years, you're more likely to see its modern counterpart produced since 2007 these days.
In the United Kingdom, it's the original Mini. Bonus points if it has the Union Jack painted on the roof. If you're in London, you will see the classic red AEC Routemaster double-deck buses and the original Austin FX4 black cabs.
Anytime you see France, you will see at least one Citroën DS and Citroën 2CV.
