Vehicles

Vehicles are the main inhabitants of the world of Cars and Planes, set on a world populated entirely by anthropomorphic vehicles and no humans.

Biology

Vehicles come in different shapes, sizes, colors, makes, and models. Many have their eyes located on their windshield (as opposed to being on their headlights, which serve as their cheekbones instead, unlike most cartoon cars like the Chevron cars, though there is one exception to this rule). The vehicles' windows are all opaque and gray, so no one knows what is inside them, and it is implied that they may not be hollow (though some concept art imply the presence of animal-like organs inside them). None of their doors ever open, convertibles always have their roofs up, vehicles without a roof in real life (such as Francesco Bernoulli) are given on in this world, and vehicles with asymmetrical cockpits (such as Topper Deckington III) in real life have perfectly symmetrical cockpits in the same world. Whenever a car blushes, his/her headlights start turning on at the wrong time, or shine brighter if they were already on. Cars typically have four wheels, but some vehicles have fewer like three, or more like six. Vehicles usually treat their front wheels as if they were hands, and use them to move objects, and their tires as shoes.

Cars do not wear clothing, but some appear to have headgear of some kind (such as trucks having wind deflectors resembling trucker caps), and some other accessory (such as glasses for Mel Dorado, and a monocle for Professor Z). Most car names are either based on the type of car they are based on (Sally Carrera, Doc Hudson, etc.), a car-related pun (Darrell Cartrip, Nigel Gearsley, etc.), an abnormal first name and a normal surname (Lightning McQueen, Bruiser Bukowski, etc.), a normal first name (Chuck Armstrong, Hank Murphy, etc.), or only having one name, whether real (Fillmore, Sarge, Luigi, Guido, etc.) or unusual (Boost, Ripslinger, Mayday, etc.). Vehicles primarily treat fuel as food, although they can sometimes be seen eating human food like fruits and vegetables as well. It is shown that some cars have religions ("Chrysler" replacing "Christ", "the manufacturer" replacing God, the presence of an automobile Pope, etc.) like some cultures in real life. Some vehicles are known to actually fall in love (Lightning McQueen and Sally Carrera, Mater and Holley Shiftwell, Dusty Crophopper and Ishani, etc.) and even get married (Ramone and Flo, Uncle and Mama Topolino, Harvey and Winnie, etc.). Even though vehicles can also be children as well as adults, it is unknown of how they are able to reproduce in the first place, although several quotes throughout the Cars series imply that they are manufactured (e.g. "At least 35,000 cars were made with this engine."). Vehicles can apparently also die (Doc Hudson, Rod "Torque" Redline, Leland Turbo, etc.).

Types of vehicles

Ground vehicles are the most abundant type of vehicle in this world. At least four types of vehicle exist: automobiles, trucks, buses, and pitties (forklifts). Cars, trucks, and pitties appear to be the main stand-in for humans, and often tend to do the same things humans do (even more so for the pitties, due to their smaller size). However, it is unknown of why vehicles like buses and taxis exist in their world if cars obviously cannot fit inside them. Bikes, motorcycles, ATVs and segways do not exist in this world.

Aircraft/spacecraft, trains, and boats/ships are typically used as transportation for the cars due to their larger size. Aircraft come in at least four types: planes, helicopters, airships, and spaceships. On some aircraft, they appear to wear either sport goggles or helmets on their cockpits. Most aircraft and spacecraft are large enough for cars to fit inside of, but smaller aircraft act more like individual humans rather than transport. Spacecraft resemble large airplanes with rockets attached, rather than simply being rockets. Hot air balloons, however, are not anthropomorphized.

Trains are mostly diesel or electric, with some occasional steam locomotives. On steam locomotives, their eyes are located on their front windows behind their boilers rather than on their smokeboxes like the characters in Thomas the Tank Engine. Locomotives usually act like humans, and the number of wheels tend to vary: steam locomotives usually have either no, two, or four pilot wheels, a varying number of drive wheels, and no, two, or four trailing wheels, while diesel and electric locomotives have either eight or twelve wheels (four or six on each bogey). Trains and rolling stock are much larger than in real life in order to accommodate a car.

Boats/ships are the largest of these vehicles, and are often either large ships or speedboats. On some ships, their bridges resemble a ship captain's hat. Many boats and ships are large enough to carry a good number of vehicles. A submarine was shown in the end credits of Cars 2, and Skipper Riley mentions German U-boats fighting in WW2 in the comic Stratagem. Rowboats, canoes, and kayaks are not anthropomorphized.

One anthropomorphized machine that is not a vehicle is a large rotating crane shown at the beginning of Finn McMissile's escape from the oil rig in Cars 2.

Animals are also carified, either appearing as large machines like tractors (cows and deer), combines (bulls), bulldozers (also bulls), snowmobiles (also deer), miniature cars (insects and rodents), planes (birds), or trains (snakes), or giant dump trucks (unknown). A road sign seen in Moon Mater shows a crocodile with tires. Crabby is stated to be a crab boat who works out of the Bering Sea. Other than these, no other animals exist in this world. Because of this, it is unknown if human versions of large machines exist, and there must be a way for crops to be harvested, structures to be built, and where vehicles usually get meat for food. Some logos appear to have uncarified animals (such as the Dinoco logo and the Ferrari logo) despite this. Additionally, there are a picture of the Jackalope from Boundin', plastic flamingos, and the birds from For the Birds, all of which are uncarified, as well as a bumblebee, and the bear on Sacramento's flag. Plants like trees and bushes are not carified like the animals, but flowers resemble taillights of old cars. This may be due to vehicles treating plant life as if they were a fuel source. At least one machine, Bessie, is not anthropomorphized at all.