Ford Prefect has been stranded on earth for fifteen years, which leaves about nine years before he was saved by and met Arthur. How, in those nine years, did he not realize that cars weren't the dominant species on earth?
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5based on the film? I think this was trying to wedge the joke, that worked well in the book into the film, In the book this happen when he first came to earth, he chose his name based on what he thought was the dominant life form.– AidanOCommented Feb 24, 2015 at 17:40
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2In the film it's a flashback to his first arrival on earth.– CatijaCommented Feb 24, 2015 at 18:23
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But in the film Arthur has only known Ford for five to six years. It's not exactly when Ford visits earth that he tries to communicate with a car, it's nine years after he first became stranded.– Dawe SinlowCommented Feb 24, 2015 at 18:57
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2 Answers
The incident you describe only exists in the film, not in the original radio series or the books.
When Ford came to Earth he knew so little about it that he chose the name "Ford Prefect" as he thought it would be "nicely inconspicuous". This isn't because he thought that cars were the dominant species but simply that it was a common name.
The fact that the Ford Motor Company had discontinued the Prefect model years before is irrelevant to the story. The name just scans well for the humour of the story.
The scene in the film is just a visual key while the voiceover is repeating the quotation from the radio and books about the name being common. The car in the film is indeed a 1960s Ford Prefect.
answered Feb 24, 2015 at 19:27
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5+1: On another random note, the joke was apparently lost on many Americans, whilst in other countries (such as France) the name in the book was Ford Escort (as that was a more common car there). Commented Feb 24, 2015 at 19:29
This is an older question but I'll attempt an answer anyway.
In the books, Arthur refers back to when he first met Ford and says something along the lines of "When you first got here, you thought cars were the dominant life form!"
This assumption was probably because there are a lot of them, they move, they are everywhere, the whole world is formed around being accessible to cars, and any number of other reasons (this is not spelled out in the book, but if an alien was to first visit Earth I wouldn't think it was a strange assumption.)
Ford was merely trying to introduce himself to what he incorrectly thought was a sentient being, and the dominant lifeform. A "Take me to your leader!" type deal. It was only afterwards that he realised humans are the dominant lifeform and not just servants of the car 'master race'.
EDIT: I agree with the above answer that the actual 'introducing himself' scene was nowhere to be found. But iirc the statement about cars being the dominant life form was there.
