Used Cars (1980)

Rudy's (Kurt Russell) a used car salesman with dreams of running for Senate. He works for Luke Fuchs (played by Jack Warden), who runs a dealership right across the street from his brother Roy's (also played by Jack Warden). Roy learns the new freeway will go through his lot, so he needs to get Luke's. So he arranges for one of his employees to take Luke on a test drive that overloads his heart.

Rudy and the other employees cover up Luke's death and carry on with business, while Roy tries to either sink the dealership or prove Luke is dead. Rudy goes so far as to hijack the transmission of a football game to broadcast a commercial for the lot. Then they do it again later during a presidential address. The second one was pretty fun, for the sheer over-the-top aspect of it. In the middle of all that, Luke's daughter Barbara (played by Deborah Harmon) shows up, looking to reconnect with her dad.

So Rudy's more than a bit of a scumbag, which is funny since Luke seems to be pretty honest. Rudy's out here buying stolen cabs from some guy across the border in Mexico, putting bumpers back on with chewing gum. Even Matilda's dad used super-super glue. But Kurt Russell's charming enough to keep him from being too irredeemable. Plus, Luke did ask him to keep the dealership out of Roy's hands, so in that sense, he's honoring a dead man's wish. That it also gets him more money which he will donate to the (presumably Republican) party to secure the nomination is just a fortunate confluence of events. Trust him!

Some of the bits he and the other dealers use to make sales are pretty hilarious, the bit with the dog and the station wagon in particular. Watching Rudy make an ass of himself to keep Barbara from seeing the commercial they're running is good for a laugh. The end of the movie turns into one of those mad-dash sequences I always associate with '80s comedies. Whether they're trying to raise enough money, or get some piece of evidence, or in this case, enough cars to make it so Barbara didn't make a false claim in a commercial. It's funny, but it drags longer than it really needs.