{"id":3464,"date":"2024-08-12T19:05:57","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T19:05:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/?p=3464"},"modified":"2026-06-28T19:07:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T19:07:22","slug":"new-display-better-call-saul-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/?p=3464","title":{"rendered":"New exhibit – “Better Call Saul\u201d Car\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WHEELS Museum welcomes the 1998 Suzuki Esteem that appeared in the \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d Television series to our collection of vintage cars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of four 1998 Suzuki Esteems sourced by Sony Pictures for use in the hit tv show Better Call Saul. Somewhat of a rarity these days, a nationwide search went on for enough Esteems to play the role of James McGill\u2019s trusty (most of the time) transportation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head of the show\u2019s Transportation Department Dennis Milliken was instructed by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould to \u201cstart looking for this vehicle in the mid to late 90\u2019s range.\u201d They even toyed with the idea of having the word Esteem written along the bottom part of the side of the car. Milliken said \u201cin my almost 40 years in this business, I have never searched so far and wide for multiples of the same vehicle.\u201d The final design was the color scheme of Dennis\u2019 college roommate\u2019s \u201870s Ford Pinto, mismatched red door and all. Eventually cars were found in Denver, Phoenix, Houston, and the Pacific Northwest where this car was found. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the 4 cars used in production, 1 was cut up to be into a camera process car, one was scrapped, the nicest condition \u201chero car\u201d was retained by Sony, and the one in front of you which met its fate in Season 5. In the episode titled \u201cBagman\u201d, a simple cartel money pickup job turns deadly when Bob Odenkirk\u2019s character is ambushed by a rival cartel in the desert.(which is why the car is riddled with bullet holes) Eventually, the car breaks down for good, and is pushed off a ledge in the desert (filmed in real life in To\u2019hajiilee about 35 miles west of Albuquerque.) The car would appear again in a teaser for the series finale with the car in an even further state of decay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an interview with Esquire magazine in 2021, Bob Odenkirk who played James McGill\/Saul Goodman stated if he could keep any souvenir from filming it would be the Suzuki Esteem car that he drove. He said \u201cI really, truly enjoyed driving that little hunk of metal. I did tell my son I was going to get him one of those for his first car, and he thought that was pretty cool, so I\u2019d like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a recent overhaul by the private owner, the car miraculously cranked right up after being dormant since the show wrapped. It still runs and drives great despite looking like it\u2019s ready for the scrapyard. Say what you will about the Suzuki Esteem, but after a cartel shootout, being pushed off a cliff and over 150,000 miles logged, it doesn\u2019t show any signs of slowing down soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHEELS Museum welcomes the 1998 Suzuki Esteem that appeared in the \u201cBetter Call Saul\u201d Television series to our collection of vintage cars.  \u00a0 This is one of four 1998 Suzuki Esteems sourced by Sony Pictures for use in the hit tv show Better Call Saul. Somewhat of a rarity these days, a nationwide search went…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3464"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3488,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3464\/revisions\/3488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wheelsmuseum.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}