There's actually a better answer. One of the things about KITT in the original series was not just the fact hat he was the "car of the future", but he was the "car of the future" inside of what appeared to be a normal car. Seriously, how many times was KITT mistaken to be an average car? They even made a running joke of it in the pilot that carried on throughout the show. And in 1982-1985, Trans-Ams were about a dime a dozen on the road (meaning that they were common place). Nowadays, a Trans-Am of any year model is a rare sight to see on the public road. "What does that have to do with anything?" Well, one of the best things about KITT was how common he looked, which means he could tail a bad guy's car without really standing out.
I've seen many people list what they thought that a modern KITT would be. And every one of those cars I've seen suggested are expensive and overly gaudy vehicles. BMWs, Ferraris and Lamberginis. Every single one of those suggestions would stand out like the Empire State Building if it were in a small town. Now, as much as I love the classic KITT (Hell, I have the Kenner KITT and Michael Knight action figure in my collection of vintage toys), nowadays, KITT' would stand out way too much (every time I see an old car, I take notice. One time, I was driving home, looked up and saw and old-school taxi cab behind me).
Now, when it comes to the modern Mustangs, you can't walk five feet without spotting one. Again, this is a good thing if you're tailing a crook or trying to hide or blend into a crowd of vehicles. Because of the fact that there's so many, you wouldn't be notice KITT now, unless if Michael is being completely careless, resulting in a large number of people seeing's KITTs transformations).
That's why the old Trans-Ams aren't used in the show, because it defeats the purpose of KITT looking like an average car (since Trans-Ams aren't averagely seen as much).
But this one's eating my popcorn!
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Gourry Gabriev
8 years ago
I agree that the Mustang was a good choice for an updated K.I.T.T. simply due to the commonality of the current model Mustang. From what I have read GM was not interested in having one of their vehicles as the new K.I.T.T. because they were already heavily involved with the Transformers franchise. I liked the transformations of K.I.T.T., you had the 3 primary modes. First a garden variety Mustang GT as the basic mode. Second when the "Hero Car" was need it transformed into a Shelby GT 500KR (for those who don't know classic Mustangs and Shelby Cobras, KR stood for King of the Road, not Knight Rider). Third when off road capabilities were needed it transformed into a customized F150 Raptor. Despite the grumbling by some fans the transformations made perfect sense as they were used. One additional transformation that I personally liked was used when they were on the run and were trying to hide in plain sight was when K.I.T.T. transformed into a 1969 Mach 1.
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