The James Bond franchise certainly has a love-hate relationship with its cars, seriously damaging or outright destroying 13 in the series. Most of these cars are some of the flashiest, most beautiful cars in the world, too, making it particularly painful to watch. Against Bond’s best intentions, however, and to Q’s great dissatisfaction, 13 cars Bond drives in the franchise get totaled in some way.
Bond is almost always provided with an elegant set of wheels with which to assist his spying. They are usually laden with gadgets and defense mechanisms to help Bond with his various missions. Sadly, however, many of these gorgeous automobiles meet an unfortunate end in the name of Queen or King and Country. Here are all 13 cars destroyed in the James Bond series, along with how they meet their end.
13 Goldfinger: The Series’ First Aston Martin Gets Crashed Into Wall
Goldfinger arguably introduces the first 007 car of note, James Bond’s best Aston Martin model, the DB5. Q briefs Bond on its refinements and gadgets, making clear that it replaced his staple Bentley which, according to Q, had had its day. In a scene where Bond is held captive whilst still driving his Aston Martin, he uses the ejector-seat device to eject his captor out of the car and proceeds to try and escape Goldfinger’s goons. He is soon dazzled by a large mirror reflecting back to him his headlights, and detours off into a brick wall, coming to a sad halt.
12 Live and Let Die: Bond’s Chauffeur Is Shot And Bond Crashes The Chevrolet Caprice Estate
007 is being chauffeured around New York City in a gold-colored 1973 Chevrolet Caprice Estate, as Roger Moore as James Bond sits in the back seat. The chauffeur gets darted in the head by one of Bond’s enemies, forcing Bond to try and control the car to a stop while the chauffeur is still in the driving seat. From the back seat, Bond manages to bring the car to a halt, after bashing it around into other cars, smashing into bollards, and eventually coming to a stop after smacking into a parked van.
11 For Your Eyes Only: Lotus Esprit Turbo Is Blown Up
Moore’s fifth outing as 007 sees him skulking around a sketchy pool party in his Lotus Esprit Turbo. After infiltrating the party on foot and gleaning the information he needs, he makes his escape, finding himself in a rendezvous with Bond girl Melina Havelock. In Roger Moore’s darkest James Bond movie, he witnesses his Lotus Esprit Turbo get blown up due to its security system being compromised by some overly-curious henchmen, and Bond opts to drive Melina’s Citroën 2CV to engineer an escape for them both.
10 A View to a Kill: Car Chase Sees Bond’s Stolen Renault 11 TXE Get Bashed In Half
Moore’s final adventure as Bond has him pursue May Day after she parachutes off the Eiffel Tower. He steals a 1984 Renault 11 TXE to try and achieve this. During the manic chase, he gets the car bashed in half by another car, forcing him to crawl to a stop in just half a vehicle.
9 The Living Daylights: Bond Abandons V8 Volante Before It Self-Destructs
Timothy Dalton’s James Bond debut saw him drive the charming V8 Volante, which No Time to Die brings back as a homage to the series. Whilst trying to escape trouble with Bond girl Kara Milovy, Bond eventually needs to abandon his Volante after crashing into deep snow. He sets the self-destruct mechanism, and continues his escape with Kara, using an open cello case as a sled.
8 Tomorrow Never Dies: Bond Remote-Controls Q’s BMW 750iL Off Roof
The car assigned to Pierce Brosnan on his second outing as 007 is the BMW 750iL, complete with a German female voice providing navigation aid to the driver. One of the most dazzling car scenes in all of Bond is in this film as Bond remote controls the car from the back seat whilst trying to escape the parking lot, making it perhaps officially the first modern James Bond film (not GoldenEye). He stealthily jumps out of the car and continues the car’s remote-controlled journey leading the goons astray, driving the car right off the roof of the parking lot into a shop window below.
7 The World is Not Enough: Bond’s BMW Z8 Is Sliced In Half By Helicopter Weapon
The last Bond film of the 20th Century sees Bond seemingly trapped in a caviar factory as he is under attack by various assailants. He realizes a solution and reverses his BMW Z8 into a position from which he can easily enter the car. Using the integrated weapons in the car, he destroys some enemies, but then abruptly has to leave as he watches his beautiful car get sliced in half from behind by a circular blade device hanging from a helicopter. “Q’s not gonna like this,” he remarks to himself.
6 Die Another Day: Bond Crashes R’s Aston Martin Vanquish Into The Ice Palace
Brosnan bombs around in an Aston Martin Vanquish (a.k.a, The Vanish) in his final entry, one aspect that went wrong with this James Bond film. Boasting invisibility capabilities, his car is undoubtedly the stealthiest in the whole series. Jinx is trapped in the ice palace, and Bond embarks on a race against time as he crashes into the palace wall, draining the water out of the room she is drowning in, and, using his sonic ring also provided by R, shatters the front windshield bringing Jinx into the arms of Bond who then revives her back into consciousness. The car ends up battered and bruised at the front, flooded, and with no windshield.
5 Casino Royale: Bond Flips His Aston Martin DBS Multiple Times
Daniel Craig is introduced as 007 in this James Bond origin story, in which Bond wins the Aston Martin DBS in a game of poker. Although James Bond has driven many other cars in the series, the Aston Martin is a fundamental, series-defining classic that the 007 origin story simply had to feature. Bond uses the car to chase after Vesper who has been taken captive. At a point during the case, Bond notices in a split second that Vesper is tied up in the middle of the road, forcing him to turn sharply resulting in a seven-time barrel-roll which made the Guinness Book of World Records, leaving the classy vehicle in steaming tatters.
4 Quantum of Solace: Bond’s Aston Martin DBS Is Battered During A Brutal Car Chase
007 is once again seen driving his Aston Martin DBS, this time at the very beginning of the film, where a frantic car chase poses as the pre-title sequence. The chase is perhaps the most violent in the series, as Bond attempts to escort Mr. White, Craig’s Bond’s most important villain, to safe quarters. At one point the car has its door ripped clean off, and ends up looking like it belongs in a scrapyard.
3 Skyfall: Bond’s Aston Martin DB5 Is Obliterated And Blown Up
The classic Aston Martin DB5 returns for this 50th anniversary Bond entry. Bond uses it to drive himself and M over to his childhood home in Scotland, Skyfall, for the finale of the film. Bond uses the car stealthily purely as a weapon, hiding in the car and firing at Silva’s men when they arrive at the house. Later, it gets demolished by bullets forcing it to blow up, which angers Bond profoundly.
2 Spectre: Bond Ejects From Aston Martin DB10, Sending It Into River
Craig’s penultimate 007 adventure sees him in a car chase with classic Bond villain henchman Mr. Hinx. Bond driving his Aston Martin DB10, and Mr. Hinx in his equally captivating Jaguar C-X75. Bond tries to outdrive the Jaguar, but running out of road he decides to use the ejector seat to vacate the car and escape in style, leaving the car to independently plummet into the Tiber River in Rome.
1 No Time To Die: Does Bond’s Classic Aston Martin DB5 Get Ditched?
Craig’s final James Bond film is the longest in the series and also boasts the lengthiest pre-title sequence in the franchise, which sees Bond escape with Madeleine Swann in his Aston Martin DB5. The car chase is arguably one of the most thrilling in the series, throughout which the car takes its fair share of abuse. At one point, the car comes to a halt in Matera, in the so-called “Doughnut Square”, one of the best locations in No Time to Die, where the car gets pummeled with bullets. Bond makes a swift escape, taking Madeleine to the train station where he leaves her.
In the title sequence that follows, a subtle visual is shown of the classic Aston Martin DB5 sinking to the bottom of the ocean. This could suggest that Bond ditches his car after this high-octane car chase, to wipe any trace of his whereabouts and to easily go off-grid thereafter. Like many interesting points in No Time To Die, and the James Bond series as a whole, this is one question that remains tantalizingly unanswered.