Howdy Webriders! Dr. VW here for an Auto Adventure to the movies! This weekend I went to see the latest action film in the James Bond franchise: Quantum of Solace. The movie rocked hardcore, picking up right where Casino Royale left off. In case you forgot, that’s the movie where 007 (played by Daniel Craig) flips a brand new Aston Martin DBS v12 into scrap. I think a bit of my soul died. Hit the jump to get the low down on some of the cars featured (and destroyed) in Quantum of Solace! (if you haven’t seen the movie yet… spoiler alert!)

Aston Martin DBS V12

First… lets have a moment of silence for yet another Aston Martin DBS V12. It was destroyed in the opening scenes of the movie… honestly I don’t know how they could find the brass balls to destroy one of these. The DBS is one of the most beautiful cars in existence… totalling one for the sake of a movie is tantamount to punting a kitten as far as you can. The reality is they probably destroyed several more than one… somewhere in the universe a planet of puppies was just sucked into a black hole. Anyway it made for an excellent chase scene. Bit of trivia: despite the Aston Martin being a quintisentially British car, James Bond actually drove a 1933 Bentely Convertible in the book version of Casino Royale. The trend of the films however, is to have 007 behind the wheel of an Aston Martin- personally… I think the DBS is gods gift to the earth.

Ford Edge

What was strange is that this was the VILLIANS car. Thats right… the family friendly crossover from Ford was the whip of choice for the bad guys. Somehow I have a hard time imagining the car as anything evil… they could have picked something faster at least… What’s even funnier is the villian was actually an environmentalist named Dominic Greene… at least in public life. So guess what the Edge was packing under the hood? Yep. Electric motor. Go ahead and giggle… if I were James Bond I think I’d be a little less than nervous over an electric clunker of a minivan trying to chase me down in… well anything burning gas. The only downside is you can’t blow up an electric the way 007 usually does… with a well placed shot to the gas tank. Those pesky eco-terrorists sure know how to thwart the trigger happy members of Mi6.

Ford Ka

Driven by the insanely hot Camille (played by Olga Kurylenko) this car is the first of many “wtf?” moments in the film when she rolls up and demands Bond to “get in”. The car doesn’t get blown up… but she does do a sweet peel out in an alley after trying to shoot James in the head. The Ka is a car restricted to South and Latin American countries, and has replaced the beetle as the cute little coupe of choice. Which brings us to….

VW Super Beetle!

Yep. In the second major “wtf” moment of the film, Camille rolls up to pick up Bond for the second time, only this time she’s driving a beat up and severely abused VW Super Beetle. Another Latin American favorite, it was still somewhat of an exciting moment for me, because I thought for sure James would take the wheel, do some stunts, and forever re-define the Super Beetle as a badass little hatchback that can hold its own against the bad guys.

I was sorely disapointed that nothing happened. They just used it to get from point A to point B. The Super Beetle remains an “uncool” car that is rather slow and weak. *sigh*

Well Webriders… a full rundown of all the vehicles in Quantum of Solace would probably take longer to read than just watching the movie… SO go and see it! Be sure to check out the dope airplanes too… and the motorcycle scene in the alley is worth the ticket price alone. This is Dr. VW– signing off.