The Haunted Car (book)

The Haunted Car is the twenty-first book in the Goosebumps Series 2000 book series. It was first published in 1999.

The cover illustration shows The Haunted Car driving near the woods at night. The Classic Goosebumps cover shows a blue car with sharp teeth and bright headlights coming out of the woods at night.

Blurb
(Classic Goosebumps version)- Mitchell Moinian kept going to his bedroom window to peer down at the car. A streetlight made the chrome bumpers sparkle and the sleek blue body glow. Mitchell couldn't resist. He had to sit in the car. Holding his breath, he crept down the stairs and out the front door. He stepped around to the driver's side and grabbed the handle. "Go ahead," a voice whispered. "Climb in." Mitchell had no idea how scary a ride this was going to be.

Plot
Mitchell Moinian is a car fanatic. He finally convinces his father to get a new car. They go to a lone dealer who has one car, but is hesitant to give it to them. Mitchell begs his dad to get it for their family because of how clean and sleek it looks. The owner finally gives them the car for a low price, but tells them to be very careful.

At night, Mitchell sneaks out to go in the new car, and wonders why the owner said it was dangerous. A voice inside tells him to come in and pulls Mitchell toward the car. He gets in and the doors close, and then it gets icy cold in the car. He tries to get out, but the doors are locked. Finally, he is able to get out of the car.

The next day, his friends from shool want to see the inside of the car, but they all get trapped in, too. Later on, Mitchell finds out that there is a ghost of a girl who died while driving this car, and is the one responsible for the strange things happening. She makes Mitchell get in when her parents leave together, and she drives the car crazily, and the drives back to his house to crash the car and to also kill Mitchell. When they get there, his house is on fire. The ghost girl then melts away since she prevented her dirty deed of killing someone else in the same way that she died.

Mitchell gets out, and finds that the car is dead. His father takes it to a repair shop later, but the worker told his father that the car would start if the engine was on to begin with! Would Mitchell's father believe him now?

Differences

 * The reprint was released as a tie-in to the Goosebumps film.

Differences

 * In France, this book is the 67th book of the original Goosebumps series. The tagline was changed to "A tombeau ouvert", which is a play on the french saying, "rouler à tombeau ouvert" (which means "driving at breakneck speed"), while "tombeau ouvert" itself means "open grave".

Trivia

 * This book, Bride of the Living Dummy, and Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls are the only Series 2000 books to receive reprints.
 * The Haunted Car is similar to one of Stephen King's horror novels, Christine, which is also about a possessed car.

References in other Goosebumps media

 * The Haunted Car appears in the Goosebumps film as Slappy's main way of transportation.
 * An achievement in "Goosebumps: The Game" is called "The Haunted Car", and it is mentioned by the movers.