“I bought a Jewish sports car. It not only stops on a dime, it picks it up”

American singer, songwriter and novelist Kinky Friedman joked on the Jewish reputation for being tight with money. “Y’know the definition of a Jewish Cadillac? It stops on a dime and picks it up,” Friedman said at New York’s Lone Star Cafe in 1978.
 
A slightly different version was printed in Totally Tasteless: The Collected Works (so far) of Blanche Knott (1983):
     
“Did you hear about the new brand of tires—Firestein? They not only stop on a dime, they pick it up.”
   
The joke has been printed on several images.
       
   
Dictionary.com
stop on a dime
Fig. to come to a stop in a very short distance.
     
Google Books
New York
Volume 11
1978
Pg. 19:
,,, “Y’know the definition of a Jewish Cadillac? It stops on a dime and picks it up” were the sorts of things Kinky said ...
 
13 December 1978, Washington (DC) Post, “Shrewd and Kinky” by Eve Zibart, pg. D8, cols. 1-2:
And Kinky makes joke about being the only Jewish entertainer from Texas or about God being a Texans Wasp or about Jewish Cadillacs that “stop on a dime and pick it up,” he is striking a kind of a blow for minority rights that B’nai B’rith will never understand.
 
Google Books
Totally Tasteless:
The Collected Works (so far) of Blanche Knott
By Blanche Knott
New York, NY: Ballantine Books
1983
Pg. 46:
Did you hear about the new brand of tires—Firestein?
They not only stop on a dime, they pick it up.
 
18 June 1985, Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Ad money talks way onto ” by Mike Royko, sec/ 1, pg. 3:
A Hanley Dawson car salesman is opening the door for the judge, while saying: “You’ll love this beauty, Your Honor. It can stop on a dime…And pick it up.”
 
15 September 1989, Toronto (ON) Star, “Kinky hears America clamor” by Mitch Potter, pg. D7:
Re-acquaint yourself with Kinky Friedman, the man with a pop parable for every occasion.
(...)
“I mean, I’m actually enjoying these gigs, because I know that everything is not riding on it. Me and my agent Cleave are riding in a Cadillac called the Yom Kippur Clipper - it stops on a dime and picks it up.”
     
22 June 1992, The Daily Telegraph (London, UK), “Riding with the Kinkster Kinky Friedman not only mixes country music and Judaism, he also writes detective novels about himself. Richard Lloyd Parry joined him in his Cadillac,” pg. 13:
Outside, [Kinky Friedman]‘s wheels await him - a black, chauffeur-driven 1952 Cadillac saloon, hired specially for his visit, the same model in which Hank Williams died in 1953. The Kinkster embarks, followed by Miss Rita Jo Thompson, a former Miss Texas and his companion on this seven-city tour. “I call it the Yom Kippur Clipper,” Kinky explained, as he has explained to interviewers dozens of times before. “It’s a Jewish Cadillac: it can stop on a dime - and then it picks it up.”
 
Google Groups: alt.tasteless.jokes
ton of jew jokes
LEO MULVIHILL
10/30/94
>did you hear about the new jewish car? it not only stops on a dime, but
>it also picks it up
 
You gotta get it right…
 
Did you hear about the Jewish tires….. Firesteins..
Not only do they stop on a dime, they pick it up…
 
Urban Dictionary
Jewish Sports Car
A car that stops on a dime.
Did you see that new Jewish Sports car? It literally stopped on a dime so that cheap semite could pick it up.
by Kurt March 22, 2005
 
Twitter
Ryan Ashbaugh‏
@ryanash5610
Just bought a new Jewish sports car. Pretty sweet. It can stop on a dime and then picks it up :D
3:43 PM - 3 Nov 2010
 
Reddit—Jokes
Did you hear about the new Jewish Sports Car?
submitted December 1, 2011 by bsitty1
It stops on a dime then picks it up.
 
Reddit—MeanJokes
Have you heard about the new Jewish sports car? (self.MeanJokes)
submitted December 12, 2013 by [deleted]
It’ll stop on a dime, and then pick it up.
 
Google Groups: soc.culture.israel
in case you missed it the first time
Barry Shein
7/17/17
(...)
Did you hear about the new tires, Firestein?
They not only stop on a dime, they also pick it up!
 
Reddit—Jokes
Did you hear about the new Jewish car?
submitted August 12, 2017 by SooperModelsDotCom
Not only can it stop on a dime but it also picks it up.