The exact location of the Ghost Car commercial’s been found nearly 20 years later.
Among the many jump scare videos that defined the early 2000s internet, one of the most famous was one featuring a car driving down a grassy hillside with relaxing music playing in the background.
Know Your Meme calls it the Ghost Car commercial.
This re-upload on YouTube tilted “Scary Car Commercial” and first posted in 2006 has 19M views and counting.
While the origin story of this commercial’s been chronicled (it’s actually a legit German coffee commercial filmed in ’04), thanks to the work of sites like Screamer.Wiki and retold, as of late, by Youtubers like Wavy Web Surf one among many questions remained.
Where exactly was that jump scare car commercial filmed?
Some people, like on this Reddit thread, thought it was filmed in France and even New Zealand.
We now know!
According to Google Maps Geo Guesser professional Geo Rainbolt, who goes by that name on TikTok and all the other socials, after 150 days collaborating with other fellow Geo Guessers, they’ve found the location of the jump scare car commercial.
@georainbolt we’ve completed the internet #geo #geography #geowizard #geoguessr ♬ original sound – Owen
The K-Fee Coffee Jump Scare car commercial was filmed on N. Elwood Road in Squaw Valley, California (Fresno County.)
The exact coordinates are 36°46’09.3″N 119°15’21.9″W or, you could just click here to see the exact location on Google Maps.
Your view might look like this,
….but, if you first switch to “Satellite” and “Global” view mode, you can toggle the compass rose on the far right that allows you to turn the view a full 180 degrees, and you’ll see this, the road as viewed on the jump scare commercial.
To be clear, this is not the Squaw Valley Ski Resort aka Olympic Valley renamed to Palisades Tahoe, the site of the 1960s Winter Olympics, this is the less famous, and actually the first Squaw Valley near the city and county of Fresno.
Squaw Valley, CA does line up with the rest of the K-Fee coffee commercials also filmed elsewhere in California.
So, there you have it, if you’re bored and want to actually go to this location, you can! It’s a little over a half hour drive from Fresno, so you can definitely make an afternoon out of it.
I call bullshit. That area is NOT green and lush enough to be that area. Good try, though.
Do you have younger family members who passed the 2nd grade? They can teach you about nature and the four seasons.