10 Spooky Vehicles You Wouldn’t Want to Own

The belief in the paranormal is not a new one – people have believed in ghosts and ghouls for hundreds of years.

Around Halloween, you might be looking for some scary car stories to tell – so we have rounded up 10 of history’s most haunted vehicles and the stories behind them.

Grab a warm drink, get cosy and be prepared to learn some spooky vehicle facts to recount to your friends this Halloween night.

 

1: The Jumping Car of Cape Town

One quiet night in Cape Town South Africa, in 2004, a family is asleep after hosting a dinner party for some friends.

They are awoken in the dead of night to the sound of a car engine roaring to life.

Fearing that their Renault Megane is being stolen, the family rush to the driveway to find no intruders, but something much more intimidating – the car jumping whilst turned off and completely empty.

After inspecting the vehicle and finding no keys in the ignition and the handbrake engaged, the family phoned the police.

Upon their arrival, they believe the claim is just an elaborate joke – until the car roars to life again and jumps back into a tree.

Nine people, including two police officers, witnessed the car start and jump, but Renault remains certain that it was a faulty starter motor that caused the spooky spectacle, however, there are few guesses as to what caused the revving.

It was almost as if someone - or something - had a foot on the accelerator...

 

2: President Kennedy’s Lincoln Limousine

Pictured above is the limousine in which President John F Kennedy was fatally shot during a presidential visit to Dallas, Texas.

Unusually, the car was kept in service for several years after President Kennedy’s death, but even more unusually, once it was retired to the Henry Ford Museum in Michigan, visitors reported all kinds of spooky happenings.

Many report the feeling of a supernatural presence around the car, and there have been many rumours about a man in grey standing around the vehicle.

Sceptics have labelled the grey man as a simple shadow or trick of the light – but the sightings of him increase around November. Kennedy was shot on November 22^nd.

Is this a coincidence, or is the President’s soul attached to his limousine – by choice or otherwise?

 

3: President Lincoln’s Funeral Ghost Train

Imagine this: whilst driving down the highway in New York State at night, you notice a cloud of thick, black fog swirling down beside you.

A ghostly train has emerged from the fog, overtaking you.

It makes no noise, but you catch a glimpse of skeletal soldiers in Union uniform flanking a coffin.

The train disappears into the distance.

There are no railway tracks and now no other sign of the train.

When you finally finish your journey, you pull up at home six minutes ahead of what the time on your car’s clock was saying. 

You’ve just seen President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession. Over 150 years after he was assassinated.

Allegedly, President Lincoln’s funeral train recreates his final journey between Washington and Springfield, Illinois every April.

The train causes clocks and watches to stop in its presence, leaving them 5-8 minutes behind, and sad music or a ghostly whistle can sometimes be heard.

And, if all that wasn’t enough, Lincoln’s funeral train never reaches its destination.

Is his train still making the journey because his body never found rest?

 

4: Silverpilen (Silver Arrow) subway train

Beware the Stockholm subway late at night for a ghostly vehicle is said to travel the tracks, stopping at random stations at unpredictable times.

And, because it may be what you think is the last train, an unsuspecting commuter may not question the empty carriages or unpainted silver exterior, especially if they aren’t familiar with the Stockholm subway colour scheme.

The lack of advertisements and partially removed graffiti inside the carriages may seem more suspicious but seeing a carriage full of ghostly passengers is certain to frighten you.  

The unluckiest of those who board the ghost train may end up at Kymlinge - the subway station of the dead.

Those who end up here can lose weeks or years of their lives before emerging back into the world - if they’re lucky.

Some are never seen again, thought to be taken to a station which has no exit...

 

5: Franz Ferdinand’s Gräf & Stift Limousine

The bad luck associated with Franz Ferdinand’s limousine started on the fateful day he was assassinated by Gavrilo Princip, thus sparking the First World War.

Having narrowly avoided death earlier in the day, Ferdinand’s limousine inexplicably stalled outside the cafe Princip was just stepping out of and both the Archduke and his wife were shot dead.

Over the next twelve years, thirteen deaths were allegedly caused by this haunted car.

An Austrian General who drove it ended his days in an asylum for the insane.

Two peasants and a German military officer were all killed in the same crash.

A Swiss racing driver rolled the car, and a Romanian owner on his way to a wedding lost control of the vehicle, resulting in the death of his five passengers and himself.

The car is now on display in the War History Museum of Vienna where it sits worryingly unscathed for a vehicle involved in so many fatal accidents.

Has some malevolent force kept it in such good shape over all these years?

 

6: Bonnie and Clyde’s Haunted Car

Two of the most infamous villains of the 20th Century, famous for a string of robberies, murders, and kidnappings in the 1930s, continue to strike fear into people’s hearts nearly 80 years later.

On the night of May 23rd, 1934, police ambushed their 1932 Ford Model 18 near Sailes in Louisiana and delivered swift justice for Bonnie and Clyde’s crimes in the form of over 100 bullets, which killed them both instantly.

But that wasn't the end of these notorious criminals.

That same car now sits in Whiskey Pete’s Casino in Nevada - still in its bullet-ridden state.

Seeing such an eerie sight would be enough for a place on this list but many visitors have reported an uneasy sense of not feeling alone whilst around it, and some photos of the car show mysterious objects nearby.

There’s nothing definitive, but could the ghosts of Bonnie and Clyde be forever tied to the vehicle in which they were killed?

 

7: Number 7 London Bus

The sight of a red London bus is familiar and comforting to most English drivers - but not when you’re heading towards a head-on collision with one.

For one unfortunate driver in 1934, the sighting of the ‘Phantom Bus’ proved fatal, as his car exploded into flames when he swerved into a wall without any rhyme or reason.

At least not until several witnesses came forward during the investigation and testified about the existence of this ghostly vehicle.

Between the 1930s and 1990, many Londoners reported narrowly avoiding a collision with an unlit, unmanned Number 7 bus driving in the centre of the road.

It always appeared around Cambridge Gardens at 1:15 am - a time no buses should have been in the area. 

After thundering past the panicked drivers, it always disappeared into the night without a trace. The police were left baffled by the ‘Phantom Bus’ - so, what exactly was it?

 

8: James Dean’s Porsche 500 Spyder ‘Little Bastard’

“You’ll be dead within a week if you get into that thing,” said Alec Guinness to James Dean, upon seeing the brand-new car the Hollywood starlet had bought.

Exactly seven days later Dean and his mechanic, Rolf Wütherich, ploughed into the back of the Ford Tudor in front of them. 

Not only was Guinness’ comment scarily prophetic, but Dean and Wütherich also weren’t the only victims of ‘Little Bastard’.

After George Barris, a famous Hollywood car customiser sold the engine and drivetrain to William Eschrich and Dr McHenry, respectively. McHenry was killed and Eschrich injured in the same Californian race.

The shell of ‘Little Bastard’ then continued to wreak havoc as it injured and killed several people while on display in various schools and in transit on the back of lorries.

There are two things which make ‘Little Bastard’ stand out on this list.

Whilst it was on display in California as an illustration of the disastrous consequences of careless driving, the garage burned down.

Everything was destroyed, except this malevolent car, which came out of the fire without so much as a scratch.

Then, in 1960, five years after Dean’s death, ‘Little Bastard’ allegedly disappeared off the back of the truck which was transporting it.

Without an engine.

To this day, it hasn’t been found. 

 

9: Golden Eagle

Introducing the ‘most evil car in America’, a 1964 Dodge 330 Limited Edition.

All three police officers who drove this car during its years as a cruiser brutally murdered their families and then killed themselves.

After it was sold, doors would open on the highway, the engine would stall without reason, the steering would jam, the brakes would give out - the car seemed hell-bent on killing as many people as possible. 

And it didn’t like people trying to steal or joy-ride it either - a series of would-be vandals in the 1980s and ’90s were all killed in gruesome ways.

At least two children were killed near the Golden Eagle.

An entire family died in a house fire two weeks after a child was dared to touch the scary car.

Even though the Golden Eagle was dismantled in 2010, prompted by the belief of local churches that the car was possessed by a demon, enough parts have been found to reconstruct the shell of the car - but some of those who helped break the car up didn’t survive long enough to see it, killed shortly after vandalising the Golden Eagle.

Possibly the closest real-life vehicle to the killer car in the Stephen King novel, Christine, this blood-thirsty car has killed over fourteen people - and it’s possible that number is much, much higher.

 

10: Black Volga

Evil - that’s the only way to describe this terrifying Soviet limousine which frightened people to the point they believed it to be driven by Satan himself. 

Some would report tyre rims appear out of nowhere, or ram’s horns where the side mirrors should be.

There were always disappearances whenever the car appeared.

Children were taken and never seen again, and anyone who tried to intervene was killed within the next 24 hours - if not instantly.

The car appeared out of nowhere during the 1960s and ’70s and hasn’t been seen since.

This one would be the easiest to dismiss as scaremongering by the Soviet Government to install further terror into the oppressed population.

However, in Ukraine during the 1960s, a report tells of two girls being approached by the Black Volga before being sucked inside as if it were a vacuum cleaner.

A witness, instead of dropping dead like all the others, managed to open the door to reveal… nothing.

The front of the car was completely empty.

Before he could see anything else, there was a blinding white flash and the next thing the man knew, he was waking up 24 hours later with a terrible headache. 

The truth about the Black Volga, and what happened to the abducted children, may never be known. But surely it wasn’t the Devil himself - was it?

 

There we have it - 10 vehicles associated with creepy and unexplained events. Are they all just urban legends or was some supernatural force involved?

Considering how many tales there are of haunted houses and the strange feelings people experience all the time, perhaps there is more truth to these stories than you think…

Not quite scary enough for you?

Are these stories urban myths or have you had a run-in with a haunted car? Let us know in the comments below!