Automakers now love movie car crashes

Automakers who previously were loathe to allow their vehicles to be shown being mangled in films have done a U-turn and are now lending support to such films, the Wall Street Journal indicated Thursday. The newspaper observed that Ford is capitalizing on the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt, which included a car chase involving a Mustang, by naming a new model Mustang after the movie. BMW allowed its cars to be banged up and even blown up for a series of short Internet films produced for its new campaign. Similarly Land Rover allowed its Defender SUV (not sold in the U.S.) to be dropped from a plane in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. The change of heart by the automakers, the WSJ said, occurred following last year’s release of Mission: Impossible 2 in which an Audi TT Roadster was totaled. The appearance of the car in the film, studies indicated, boosted sales for the model in the U.S.