Question...

[caranfindel]

Do we know when John acquired the truck and passed the Impala down to Dean? I couldn't find an answer in the wiki.

Comments

[casey679.livejournal.com]

This page says he inherited it on his 18th birthday, but doesn't cite a source. http://supernatural.wikia.com/wiki/The_Impala

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I've never even seen this wiki before. It kind of bothers me that they don't give a source.

[casey679.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's why I felt the need to specify that it didn't. :/ A brief scan of the page showed most of the other information as accurate, but I hate not having sources.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I don't think the TV show has ever given us the information. Anything else probably comes from one of the spin off books (*cough* fanfiction *cough), that comic strip version or the like.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm afraid of - I don't want to go along with fanon if it actually contradicts canon. But it looks like there is no canon.

[fanspired]

This much we know: when Dean turns up in the Impala in the pilot, Sam doesn't question it, and when Constance possesses it, Sam asks "who's driving your car". We know that they hadn't spoken for two years prior to Dean's arrival, so we can infer that Dean's had the car at least that long, but since it's second nature for Sam to think of the Impala as Dean's car at this point, it's likely that he'd had it for a good long time before Sam left for Stanford.


(Although, realistically, it's unlikely Sam would refer to the Impala that way if it had ever been the family car. He'd just call it 'the car'. IMO :P)

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

Good point. Sam wasn't surprised at all that Dean had the car, and didn't ask what Dad was driving, which he would have done if he didn't already know. (Yeah, I know, he could have asked off camera, but this works for me.)

[flawedteacup.livejournal.com]

Do we know if John picked them up in the Impala in After School Special? or was Brock!Dean driving it?

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure John picked them up in it. I don't remember how old Dean was in that episode.

[tabaqui]

It says here that they went to that school in 1997, so Dean would have been 18 in that ep, and Sam 14. Dean said he dropped out of school/got his GED, so I'm guessing that not long after that, he dropped out and John gave him the car so he could leave Dean with Sam (and transportation) while Sam was in school, and still go off on his own hunts.

And according to THIS, not long after, Dean went to Cicero and met Lisa (the ep was 2007, so that would have put meeting Lisa 'over eight years ago' in 1999 or 1998). And we all know that Dean was driving on his own, 'five states in five days' while Sam and Dad were in...Florida? I think? Can't remember. Anyway. :)