Goofs

The license plate on the caddy changes from "GRANDPA" to "GRANPA" in various scenes.

Earlier in the evening, Les's sister takes their mom's Audi. Later on that same evening, after Les takes the Caddy and it rolls over the front lawn, you can see the Audi is still in the driveway.

In the shot where the drunk crashes the Caddy into a parked car and knocks the rear bumper off, the cloth top is torn, and the rear windshield broken, before either have actually been damaged.

The drunk man vomits in the front floor of the car. Yet later, when Les tries hiding from his dad, he hides where the drunk would have vomited, and emerges from the car with no stains on his clothes.

Natalie and her boyfriend were arrested during the protest. The police would have called her parents. Likewise, in the mad race to the hospital the next morning, no one asked where Natalie was.

When Natalie is handed her driver's license, it says her date of birth is 3-29-72, and the warning says "Under 21 until 1992", which would actually be her 20th birthday. Also, Les' license, with the same date of birth, does not have the under 21 warning on it.

When Les reaches into the glove compartment of his grandfather's car and makes the comment "Grandpa's top 10" when viewing the set of cassettes, he pulls out a Frank Sinatra tape, notable by its cover as the 1974 release of "Some Nice Things I've Missed." This is the tape that gets stuck in the player for the remainder of the movie. None of the songs played on the soundtrack from the cassette player (i.e. Strangers in the Night, That's Life, and Saturday Night (sung by a Sinatra impersonator Jerry Wright) are on this album.

The movie depicts the process of earning a driver's license at the California DMV as taking both a knowledge test and a road test on the same day. In actuality, the knowledge test is only taken prior to earning a learner's permit. In order to receive a driver's license, only a road test is administered.

Despite what is depicted in the film, the California DMV does not test their applicants on parallel parking to earn a driver's license.

One of the questions on Les's knowledge test asks him to identify "the smoothest lane of travel" on the highway. This question would never be asked on the knowledge test due to the ambiguity of the question and also due to the fact that the concept of the smoothest lane of travel does not actually exist.

When Natalie's date Carl picks her up,he calls her Natasha and not Natalie.

When Les is eating dinner with his family, Dean comes to pick him up and uses his car horn to get him to come out. Les' parents won't excuse him as Dean continues to honk. Finally the parents tire of the noise and yell to Les "GET OUT" The honking immediately stops. It shouldn't have. It should only have stopped when Les opened the front door or at least looked out the window.

When the drunk man falls asleep and Les is trying to get in the car, you can see the stuntman turning his head toward Les several times, obviously making sure he is keeping the car in the right place.

Even though Dean is shown towing Les on a two-wheel bike, the actors rode a three-wheel bike for balance. The two back wheels are visible when Les guards his face from some branches that he and Dean ride through.

After Les jumps through the back window of the bus, the bus does a 180 in the middle of the road and it's obvious the bus is empty.

During the "Joy Ride" scene, chapter 11 on the DVD version, when they are driving and go out of control, right before they go through the fence and zoom up on all their faces, Les's face is disfigured.

At time index 0:22:56 while taking the driver's test on the computer, it already displays his incorrect answer "C" and then proceeds to push choice "C" which he finds out is indeed incorrect.

Corey Haims hair seems to change throughout the movie. It goes from light brown to medium golden brown,light auburn to dark auburn. In different scenes his hair goes from gelled and styled to dry and fluffy. Towards the end of the movie when he is driving his mom to the hospital his hair his longer.

After the drunk man drives off in the Cadillac, Les, Dean, and Charles get in the man's Volkswagen. Charles says they can't take the car, and Les says "Yeah? Well, he took our car. We're gonna take his!", but his lips aren't moving when he says it.

When Charles is telling Les that the drunk has thrown up in the Caddilac, you can see that Dean is exclaiming the word "What?!" but you can't hear him say it.

There is a crew member reflected in Les' back window at the drive-in restaurant.

When the coffee cup flips on to the instructor's lap during Les's road test, the hole in the dash board containing the device (air spout or piston) that launched it is visible.

At the beginning of the movie when Les is dreaming, the school bus that chases him down the road is filled with Mannequins as you can see clearly.

During the drive to the hospital the dad and mom get wet but Les and Rudy are dry. When the dad gets out of the car to help the mom he's dry but when him and Les watch the beem drop on the Cadillac he is soaking wet again.

The drunk driver obviously has little liquior bottles on him as well as a knife he uses to cut lemons but during the traffic stop he is never frisked, searched, or arrested. Think the police would've noticed that.

The amount of ketchup on the Mom's mashed potatoes changes between shots.

The tow truck driver obviously has a deep southern accent when he tells Les to get off his truck,but in his next lines the accent disappears.