Alejandro's car

Alejandro's car is one of the many objects seen on Desperate Housewives that serves of big importance in the unfolding of a story. It is a 2009 Ford Focus.

Story
Alejandro Perez was the abusive stepfather of Gabrielle Solis, who molested her when she was 15 years old. Several years later, he came back and tormented her, and ultimately her husband Carlos killed him with a candlestick and the body was subsequently buried in the woods, in a cover-up operation conducted by the Solises' friend, Bree Van de Kamp. Approximately one month later, Bree realizes, from a casual conversation with her boyfriend, Detective Chuck Vance, that she must get rid of Alejandro's car in order to further eliminate traces of his presence in Fairviewand thus the possible connection to Carlos having killed him.

Therefore, Bree and Gabrielle go looking around the neighborhood for Alejandro's car, with Bree repeatedly clicking on a remote control set of car keys. She says to Gaby: "So you kept his keys, but it never occurred to you he might have a car?"; Gaby replies that she just threw all his stuff on their safe, and she didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. A car is heard being unlocked, and they spot it: they've found Alejandro's car. They head over to it, and Gabrielle asks what the plan is. Bree tells her they'll drop it off at the bad part of town and let social decay take its course. She then proceeds to remove all the fliers that have been left in the windshield, and Gabrielle asks her if she has to tidy up, then telling her to get inside the car, because if anybody catches them in that car, they're dead. Bree takes the fliers, opens the door on the driver's side and looks inside, horrified that it has a stick gear.

Gaby tries to drive the car but can't get it to move properly. Chuck shows up and offers to drive the car, much to their frustration and anxiety, considering that they're now riding inside a car that belonged to a murdered man and that is being driven by a police detective. Chuck asks whom the car belongs to, and they make up a story about 'Aunt Shirley', an aunt of Gaby's who was too drunk to take the car back home the night before, so they're driving it back. Chuck finds miscellaneous items inside the car that seem to belong to a man, and Bree and Gaby do their best to brush this off, which leads to Gabrielle chewing some tobacco, which leads to her feeling sickly and needing to stop and throw up. Chuck stops the car in an alley and gets out to assist Gaby as she throws up into a trash can.

In the meantime, a carjacker enters the car, pointing a gun at Bree and telling her he is going to take it. Bree is filled with joy, and tells the carjacker she could kiss him. The man doesn't understand her reaction, and tells her to just get out. Bree shooshes him, telling him to keep his voice down because the man behind them is a cop. The carjacker is scared, and starts to get out of the car, but Bree stops him, saying "When you start something, young man, you see it through."; she then unbuckles herself and gets out the car, telling the man to "buckle up". He does so, and drives away, with a confused look on his face. Gaby and Chuck are surprised to see the car in motion, and he asks his girlfriend what happened. Bree thinks about it for a second and tells them Shirley just happened to be walking by.

Trivia

 * In the eighth season premiere, the car is seen as a 4-door Ford Focus, but prior to that, in the seventh season finale, Alejandro is seen driving a 3-door Ford Focus.
 * Originally, the car was supposed to be oart of a different story in 8.01 where Bree tries to ditch it lone but was stopped by Chuck. Later, a smell was found in the back of the car with the source of it being bad groceries, Chuck moves them so that Bree doesn't have to get her hands dirty.