The story follows Rudy Russo (Kurt Russell), a devious salesman, working for affable, but monumentally unsuccessful used-car dealer Luke Fuchs (Jack Warden).

The film also stars Deborah Harmon and Gerrit Graham, and the supporting cast includes Frank McRae, David L. Lander, Michael McKean, Joe Flaherty, Al Lewis, Dub Taylor, Harry Northup, Dick Miller, and Betty Thomas.

He works at the struggling New Deal used car lot owned by the elderly Luke Fuchs, who agrees to invest $10,000 in Rudy's campaign if he promises to keep the business alive.

Shortly after crashing the classic car into the lot, Luke dies of a heart attack, leaving Rudy with firm evidence that Roy staged the "accident".

In an attempt to prevent Roy from gaining any inheritance, Rudy has his superstitious co-worker, Jeff and mechanic, Jim, help him bury Luke on the dealership's backlot in a vintage Edsel that was once New Deal's sign ornament.

In one deal, Jeff cons a family into buying a station wagon by having the lot's mascot dog, Toby, fake being run over during a test drive.

Luke's estranged daughter Barbara Jane visits the lot in hopes of reuniting with her dad, having dropped out of college more than ten years before to live on a hippie commune.

Rudy's gang broadcasts another commercial in the middle of Jimmy Carter's presidential address, destroying some of Roy's used cars in the process, most notably his prized Mercedes SL.

Roy brings the police to New Deal the next day to dig up the rearlot, but Jim has taken the Edsel out of the pit, placed Luke's corpse in the driver's seat, and rigged the car to crash into a power transformer, where it explodes as planned.

As a final means of shutting down New Deal, Roy has his connections in local television station KFUK re-edit Barbara's commercial to imply that she has "a mile of cars", while also pushing a trumped-up charge of false advertising.

The film had been previously released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on January 1, 2002, as a Region 1 DVD with audio commentary by Robert Zemeckis, Kurt Russell, and Bob Gale.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Robert Zemeckis' pitch-black satire of American culture doesn't always hit the mark, but it's got enough manic comic energy to warrant a spin.

The Washington Post's Gary Arnold dubbed it "a mean, spirited farce [...] Director/co-writer Robert Zemeckis has undeniable energy and flair, but it's being misspent on pretexts and situations that seem inexcusably gratuitous and snide.

"[13] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker described Cars as "a classic screwball fantasy — a neglected modern comedy that’s like a more restless and visually high-spirited version of the W. C. Fields pictures.