Continuity mistake: When Bill Murray has stolen the Groundhog and is driving away with it in the red truck, the police car and the TV van chase it. There is a shot of the red truck going under a low bridge, and then a long shot of all 3 vehicles. There is no way the TV van could have gotten under that bridge with all the stuff on its roof, and yet in the very next shot it is seen continuing the chase.
Other mistake: On the second day, Phil did his same tasks at about the same time as the previous day, so everything lining up the same made sense. However, on day 3, he quickly rushes out of his hotel, avoiding interacting with most of the people he did before and gets to the street with the beggar much sooner than he did before. Yet Ned still is there crossing the street and sees him exactly the same as before. However with Phil having skipped so much he would have gotten there and passed that spot a good while before Ned would have gotten there, and they should not have had the exchange again on day 3. Same thing for when he arrives at the Groundhog Festival, with Rita greeting him like he's late. But he would have gotten there much sooner this time.
Audio problem: When Phil is playing the piano with the jazz group, we hear three glissandos (dragging of the fingers over the keys starting from high to low), yet we see his hands only do one. We hear the first two happen while we see his hands playing something different.
Audio problem: When Phil is dressed as an outlaw and pretending to be "Bronco" his Clint Eastwood impression voice is out of sync with his lips.
Other mistake: Focusing on the clock as it turns to 6:00, one clock has a visible gear in the middle of the numbers. At other times, no gear.
Audio problem: At the party when Phil is playing the piano, there are several shots of the other band members. Multiple times they are seen playing their instruments, but they are never heard. The most obvious example is right before Phil finishes up his set. The saxophone guy is playing but you never hear it.
Continuity mistake: When Phil is driving the truck towards the cliff, the wide angles show it leaving a thick cloud of dust. In the close-ups inside the car, the cloud is gone.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie when Rita reaches over Phil to turn off the alarm clock, we know the clock always goes off at 6:00AM. After turning off the alarm 2 1/2 minutes go by while they are talking and the clock should read 6:02, but when the camera pans to the clock it only reads 6:01.
Other mistake: When Phil is driving the car against the train he ultimately swerves out into a railroad crossing. However when the approaching train is shown from within the car in the last seconds before the two vehicles would collide, there is no crossing to be seen on the remaining track stage between them.
Factual error: The train in the joyride scene is a Burlington Northern locomotive, which would never be found in Pennsylvania.
Continuity mistake: When Phil wakes up for the third time he immediately runs out of the hotel without speaking to anyone in order to get to Gobbler's Knob faster but when gets outside the piano teacher is already walking across the street. She shouldn't already be there if Phil went straight from his room to the street.
Continuity mistake: Towards the end of day 3 when Phil is drinking at the bowling ally, Gus says he pegs Phil as a glass half empty kind of guy. Phil is looking partly in his direction to his own left when he's saying this. When the camera cuts to a close up, Phil is looking straight ahead and then turns his head.
Continuity mistake: After Phil gets done with the weather report and then talking about his plans for the next day, he goes off to the side talking to some other men. He looks back and sees Rita playing with the blue screen. She looks over to her right at the TV which turns her head to the left of the camera. But then it suddenly cuts to what the TV is seeing and she's looking straight ahead, which means she'd be looking directly at the camera, and not the TV.
Continuity mistake: When Phil kidnaps the groundhog the TV van has two intact headlights as it begins to chase Phil. When the van skids to a stop at the quarry, the right headlight is missing as if it had an accident.
Continuity mistake: Two chocolates are shown next to the alarm clock each time the clock is switched off or destroyed. They are in slightly different positions in every shot throughout the movie.
Answer: We know the police car survived because unit 2 is the car that followed them onto the tracks, and unit 2 is also one of the cars present when they are stopped (though it came from the wrong direction). The movie doesn't explain how the car survived so it is left to the viewer's imagination.
jimba