The Mystery Machine

Face it: the Scooby Doo cartoon has its problems. The plotlines are as formulaic as cake batter, the animation blows, and whatever spooky stuff is happening, you can be sure Old Man Withers is to blame. In the big screen version, Scooby wasn’t even a real dog. He was a big steaming pile of CGI! C’mon, didn’t anybody on that set see Babe?

But even with those problems, there’s something endearing about the mystery solving teenagers and their trusty van. A recent Toys R Us poll found that the Mystery Machine is considered the greatest fictional car of all time, besting even Herbie and the Batmobile. So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that there are many excellent examples of Fred’s ride on our site.

We’re big fans of Scooby Doo, but admit to being a bit confused about a few things. Shaggy’s bongo playing is explanation enough for why he and Scooby are always spaced out and hungry. But why are Daphane and Fred always absent while the rest of the gang is gathering clues? Is there a mattress in the back of the Mystery Machine? And just what make is it? It looks like the product of a boozy rendezvous between an American cargo van and VW bus.

Apparently we’re not the only people confused about this mutt’s pedigree. In our searches, we found vans by GM, Ford, Dodge and VW. Here’s a quick look at what you’ll find it you search CarDomain for “Mystery Machine.”

This 78 GMC is probably the slickest Mystery Machine on our site. How did bodyman Hank Bagrowski shrink it like that? Simple. He chopped it in half. Since Hank put together his CarDomain page this custom job has changed hands. The new owner, Jack Daniels (no relation) reports that Scooby fans are a breed of their own and says it’s best to humor them. He’s constantly finding folks — some clothed, some not — getting their picture taken with it. One rabid fan even forced him off the road. Apparently some people don’t know when to ease off the Scooby snacks.

Check out the links below to see some other great Mystery Machine interpretations.

This 88 Ford Econoline has the best neon treatment.

The owner of this 69 Ford Econoline got the Scooby outfit to go with the van.

Ma Mopar is represented by this 87 Dodge. We dig the Torque Thrust hubcaps.

Editor ’s pick goes to this 79 Ford Econoline, which got derbied.

We also found two Astro Mystery Machines—an 89 and a 96.

And then there’s the cute little 86 Vanagon for all the Vee-Dub fans.

And finally, it’s not a van--in fact, we’re not really sure what is going on here, but this guy is definitely a Scooby fan.

Stay tuned for more whacky TV cars on CarDomain. We’re thinking a feature on Kitt or the A Team van.

Got a cool story to share? Contact the CarDomain Editor at editor@cardomain.com.