Corrected entry: The restored Christine has yellow and black late '50s standard California license plates with the number CQB 241. The only time the letter Q was used at that time was on special plates for ham radio operators, and even then it was a different style; the type of Q they used on Christine wasn't introduced until the late '60s.
Corrected entry: In 1958, Plymouths could be ordered with radios (as was Christine in the movie). However, radio technology at that time still used vacuum tubes and vacuum tubes take time to warm up. Transistor (solid state) radios require no warm up time and produce audio instantly when turned on, but transistor radios were not used in cars until the early 60's. Typically, vacuum tube radios takes approximately 5-10 seconds for audio to be heard after the radio is turned on. In the assembly line scene (as well as later scenes), the radio is turned on and music is heard instantly but this is simply not possible with a vacuum tube radio.
Correction: The car is possessed. Evil doesn't follow any rules.
Apart from the tagline of the movie, we are not given any indication Christine is possessed by an external force. She was born evil and sentient.
Correction: Arnie cobbled the car together with parts from Darnell's wrecking yard. Also, there are a number of companies that make modern electronic radios with the face plates of the original car for car restorers.
The car radio came on the instant it was turned on on the assembly line in 57. It played Buddy Holly, Not fade away.
Correction: Filmmakers have to use fake numbers to avoid lawsuits (just like fake adresses and phone numbers).
Rlvlk
The CQB stood for close quarters battle.
While true, they have to make fake plates, it doesn't invalidate the mistake because the mistake is saying the Q seen wouldn't have been used. It would be like using a fake phone number that started with "0."
Bishop73