Estimated Laugh Count: 287 City, 410 Highway. Use these numbers only for comparison. Your actual laughs may vary depending on how you feel about used car salesmen, nude women, spectacular car stunts, and the President of the United States.

Trust us.

Like new, great looking and fully loaded with laughs.

Used Cars is one of Robert Zemeckis' pre-Roger Rabbit and pre-Forrest Gump efforts starring Kurt Russell is a devious car salesman who goes to work for affable but monumentally unsuccessful used car dealer Jack Warden. Warden's principal rival is his more prosperous twin brother, also played by Warden, who schemes to take over the "good" brother's lot. After a series of raunchy vignettes, the film boils down to an every-man-for-himself price war between the two Wardens, which rages on even after we're one Warden short. The supporting cast of Used Cars is populated by such reliables as David L. Lander, Michael McKean, Al Lewis, Dub Taylor, Dick Miller and Betty Thomas.


Used Cars is a 1980 comedy satire film. It stars Kurt Russell, Jack Warden (in a dual role), Deborah Harmon, and Gerrit Graham.
Kurt Russell portrays a devious car salesman working for affable but monumentally unsuccessful used car dealer Luke Fuchs (Jack Warden). Luke's principal rival, located directly across the street, is his more prosperous brother, Roy L. Fuchs (also played by Warden), who is scheming to take over Luke's lot.
The supporting cast includes Frank McRae, David L. Lander, Michael McKean, Al Lewis, Dub Taylor, Dick Miller, and Sarah Wills.
The movie was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and his long-time writing partner Bob Gale with Steven Spielberg and John Milius as executive producers. The original music score was composed by Patrick Williams.
Filmed primarily in Mesa, Arizona, the movie was released on July 11, 1980. Although not a box-office success at the time, it has since developed cult film status due to its dark, cynical humor and the Zemeckis style.[2] It is also marketed with the tagline "Like new, great looking and fully loaded with laughs."
It was the only Zemeckis film to be rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America until 2012's Flight.


Used Cars was met with positive reviews, based on 17 reviews Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 76%.[3] Bill Chambers of Film Freak Central gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars, saying it "makes us wish that Robert Zemeckis had directed every T&A comedy of the period."[4] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "...a movie that has more laughs in it than any film of the summer except Airplane! It wipes out...just about every other recent comedy aimed, I assume, at an otherwise television-hooked public."[5]
Roger Ebert gave the film two out of four stars, saying the film is "filled with too many ideas, relationships, and situations with plot overkill

Release Date: July 18, 1980


Distrib: Columbia Pictures


Boxoffice: $11,715,321 2013: $35,058,900