That's the one thing thathas always bothered me about TAGS. I recall the episode when Barney purchased the car from the old lady. Andy tells him thathe is always welcomed to the squad car. How could they always have dates in the police squad car?

It was a small town. They could do that.
They used that car for everything, from going to get the bad guys to taking groceries to little old ladys. Just the kind of town Mayberry is.:)

Actually, Barney owns a car in episode six of season one, "Runaway Kid."
But to your point, they did double date in the car, the four of them driving to the duck pond or the movies, or whatever, but Barney kept it most of the time after hours, and would go by the Taylor house to pick up Andy in the morning or drop him off after work. As Sterling says, it was a small town.

I should add that Aunt Bee has a car in later eps and Andy uses it from time to time.

yea, that's always bothered me, too.But , maybe that's what it was like in some small southern towns back then? I don't know.
I know it was true in small, southern towns back then that the sherriff sometimes held 2 or 3 jobs, like Andy did. In the pilot, he was the sherriff, justice of the peace, and the newspaper editor. In the show, of course, he was the sheriff and the justice of the peace.

In the first episode (not the pilot) he had a pickup truck.

When Andy and Barney would Double Date they would Go in THe Police Car

It didn't used to be as common for people to have both a company car and a personal car too, as long as the company didn't mind and usually they didn't. It might have even seemed excessive to the sort of audience TAGS sought at the time it first aired, since after all it was a small town.

It didn't used to be as common for people to have both a company car and a personal car too, as long as the company didn't mind and usually they didn't. It might have even seemed excessive to the sort of audience TAGS sought at the time it first aired, since after all it was a small town.


At one point Barney bought a car but it turned out to be a lemon. Also in one season Aunt Bea bought a car so I guess Andy had use of hers. But there really wasn't a need for a car in Mayberry since everything was in walking distance, Unless you lived up in the mountains.

Andy and Barney always took there date's in the police Car

One thing that has always bothered me has nothing to do with Andy and Barney using the squad car for personal business. Instead, it has to do with the fact that the only emergency equipment they carried in the trunk of the squad car was............A SHOVEL 'n' a RAKE!! :shocked

I grew up in a small town and there were quite a few people who didn't have cars. This was the 70's and 80's......(in the 60's I'm sure even less people had cars).

Plus, in the time frame of the show, most people didn't go out to socialize. Instead, as often seen in the show, they whiled away the evening on the front porch.

John