Why is tow mater rusty

Harsh and his plans in Galena, Ks. Galena is a town of mostly historic bldgs. More should be done to revive the Main Street area of Galena. They have actually done a lot to help restore the town buildings. My parents live there. The changes they have made just from when I was a kid are very nice. Hope they keep going with it! Not since the Brokeback Mountain vehicle, has a movie-related truck garnered so much attention.

Fun stuff. While I have no doubt that they were inspired by this truck, I believe they also took many cues from this truck as well:. Interesting, Phil. Either way, thanks for bringing it to my — and our — attention. It really looks like the truck from the movie cars. But the boom truck in Galena, Kan. Mater is a friendly tow truck with buckteeth.

He speaks with a thick Southern accent with a dash of hillbilly twang and frequently uses incorrect syntax. Mater is one of the first to befriend and support Lightning throughout his adventure in Radiator Springs. During the movie, Mater shows Lightning how to do Tractor Tippin' and how to drive backwards without crashing by using rearview mirrors, which Lightning uses to counter Chick Hicks' dirty racing in the Piston Cup race. In the end, Lightning gives Mater an opportunity to fly in a Dinoco helicopter like he always wanted, saying to Sally that Mater is his new best friend.

Mater is also capable of racing, as well as being the self-proclaimed world's best backwards driver. He attributes his skill to his rear-view mirrors and his own philosophy: "Don't need to know where I'm going, just need to know where I've been. One night, Mater plays a series of scary yet harmless pranks on his friends until a blue light begins to haunt him. Mater's final prank is his most successful: Lightning sees a tow hook hanging from behind a stack of oil cans and, assuming that Mater is hiding behind it, approaches to foil the prank.

Everyone starts to laugh at Lightning for falling for such a trick, and Mater says that Lightning looks like he's seen "the Ghostlight ".

Sheriff tells Mater not to mock the Ghostlight, a character of urban legend amongst the cars. The Ghostlight is a glowing orb of blue, translucent light that haunts Radiator Springs, and hates nothing more than the sound of clanking metal -- a sound frequently made by Mater's rickety shell. Sheriff continues to tell the story of a young couple lost in the area, whose only remains were "two out-of-state license plates". He then concludes with an overly cheerful "Well, g'night! The population of Radiator Springs then leaves within seconds, leaving a very nervous Mater all by himself in the dark.

As he reaches his garage, he is frightened by what he thought was a monster, but just a couple of junk put together. He then loses his only headlight as he enters his garage.

He is then frightened by a "lightning bug" a tiny flying Volkswagen Beetle with bright headlights. As he relaxes, a bright blue glow suddenly appears behind Mater and he goes into a blind panic, driving around in a frenzy, first going along the main road, then going through the tractor field past Frank , then around Willy's Butte , and doing a lock-strafe move after that, until he is exhausted.

However, the Ghostlight was revealed to be a glowing blue lantern to Mater's towing cable hung up by Lightning and Guido. The short ends with Mater finally collapsing on the road with the rest of the folks surrounding him, revealing the joke to him as retribution for the pranks he did to them. The credits roll and after them, there is a closing shot where the frightened Mater finds he has a huge construction vehicle behind him, snarling and carrying the license plate "Banshee.

Each tale begins with Mater telling a story of something he has done in the past such as him once being a firefighter, a drift racer, a rockstar, an astronaut, etc. In the story, Mater finds himself in an inescapable predicament. When Lightning questions Mater over whether the events in the story actually occurred, Mater responds, "Don't you remember?

You was there, too! The shorts end with Mater leaving the scene, often followed by characters or references to the story that was being told, putting up a possibility that the story might be real. In the now popular tourist destination of Radiator Springs, the rusty old tow truck Mater has a number of roles, including proprietor of Tow Mater Towing and Salvage, grand storyteller and the heart and soul of the town. When Mater calls the Mel Dorado show to defend his friend's honor, the more Mater talked, the more Francesco mocked, which ultimately lands the off-duty Lightning in an international racing exhibition: the World Grand Prix.

When Lightning invites Mater to come along as a member of his pit crew, Mater leaves Carburetor County for the first time ever unless you count the time where he was in McQueen's pit crew in California. Not long after their arrival in Tokyo , Mater learns that the world outside of Radiator Springs is decidedly different and its newfangled ways may take some getting used to.

While collecting drinks for McQueen, Mater mistakes wasabi for pistachio ice cream and takes an entire box-full, only to get a flavor blast from it. His mouth on fire, Mater desperately drove up the waterfall on stage where Miles Axlerod was introducing McQueen to wash out the taste. He then noticed an oil leak between him and Axlerod and everyone assumes Mater did it.

Despite his protests that he never leaks, McQueen sends him away to the bathroom to clean up. Entering the bathroom stall, Mater get comically tortured by a Japanese washing contraption, unaware of a fight between an American secret agent and two Lemon cars, Acer and Grem , outside.

By the time he gets out, the American agent secretly slips a device underneath his bumper. After answering her countersign correcting, Mater starts babbling on before mistakenly assuming that Holley wanted to ask him out on a date and agreed to meet the next day.

He then returned to his friends to tell him of this development, but Guido doesn't believe him. He then tries calling out to Holley but she ignores him and drives away. The next day, Mater advises McQueen during the race, enabling him to get ahead of Francesco. Unknown to Mater, the Lemons assumed he was a spy too and were covertly closing in on him. Holley taps into his headset, giving him directions to avoid the Lemons. Mater followed blindly, assuming he was being guided to his date.

He later mishears Holley, turning towards a ruckus instead of away from it. He soon witnesses Finn McMissile fights off the Lemons, which he assumes to be a live karate demonstration. Finn then vanishes, while Holley tells Mater that it's too dangerous to rendezvous and promises to be in touch.

Mater then returns to the pit, only to learn that while he was talking to Holley, McQueen was hearing him too, assuming he was shouting nonsense. He blames Mater "accidentally" messing up the race car's moves and causing him to lose the first race. Mater was hurt by his best friend's rejection and writes a farewell note to his friends before deciding to go home.

At Tokyo airport, Finn disguises himself as airport security and lures Mater to a lounge, where he inquires which American intelligence agency he was affiliated with. Mater claimed to be "triple-A affiliated" and started boasting that he knew some karate. Finn then detects Acer and Grem closing in on them and drags Mater outside.

Mater assumed he was getting first-class service and was completely oblivious to the danger. Once aboard the spy jet Siddeley , Mater figures out that Finn and Holley are spies as they extract data from the device embedded on him, which had information on the Lemon boss, showing a picture of an engine. He identifies it as "the worst engine ever made" but had no clues as to the identity of the car it belonged to. However, he did point out that the mystery car made use of replacement parts that were factory original and wouldn't be found on open markets.

Grateful for Mater's insight, Finn offered to set up an informal taskforce. Though reluctant, Mater agreed to help out the spies when Finn assured him that he would be helping him. Mater then tried pointing out that he's "just a tow truck" but Finn doesn't take him seriously. Mater joined Finn and Holley as they meet with Finn's black market contact, Tomber.

However, he does point out that the mystery car makes use of replacement parts that are factory original and would not be found on open markets. Grateful for Mater's insight, Finn offers to set up an informal task force.

Though reluctant, Mater agrees to help out the spies when Finn assures him that he would be helping him. Mater then tries pointing out that he is "just a tow truck", but Finn does not take him seriously. Mater joins Finn and Holley as they meet with Finn's black market contact, Tomber. Tomber informs them that the car to whom the engine belongs to only does business over the phone, buying numerous parts to maintain his engine, making Mater reveal that the mystery car is a lemon.

Upon being asked about the term, he explains the nature of lemons to Finn and Holley and identifies Gremlins, Pacers, Hugos, and Trunkovs as lemons, which makes Holly realize that everyone in the plot is a lemon car. Finn takes it from there and deduces that the lemon families are taking orders from the car behind this engine. Tomber reveals that the lemons are hosting a secret meeting in Porto Corsa , Italy , which is also where the second race will take place, and the lemon boss will most likely be there as well.

While being transported by Stephenson to Italy, Finn and Holley install a holographic cloaking device onto Mater's beacon light and have him disguise himself with voice command as a lemon tow truck named Ivan. Mater then objects to buffing his dents to ensure a foolproof disguise, declaring their worth of his moments with McQueen. The spies realize he is talking seriously about being friends with McQueen, and Finn tells him that friendships are dangerous in spy work.

Mater again tries to tell them the truth about who he really is again, but they assume he is joking. Upon arriving Porto Corsa, Mater begins to have second thoughts about the missions, but Finn tells him to keep up his "act" of playing "the idiot tow truck.

As he is towing Victor Hugo through the casino, he nearly blows his cover by directly talking to Holley over the radio and reading his HUD on Alexander Hugo's wanted status and nicknames until the latter asks to be quiet or he'll be arrested. Upon arriving at the lemon meeting, Mater is shocked to be in the room of the heads of the lemon's family who are all very dangerous and becomes worried about his cover.

He takes to the sidelines as the lemon boss calls the meetings via video on four flat screen TVs. Mater soon discovers the lemon plot, revealing that the lemons are sabotaging the race by igniting the Allinol in the race cars' tanks. However, McQueen announces that he will use Allinol for the race, and admits how guilty he feels over his fight with Mater.

Mater then accidentally breaks his hologram disguise, allowing the Lemons to identify him. Fortunately, the tow truck's choice of words allows him to escape as he accidentally tears up the place with his gatling guns, and activates his parachute and flies off to warn McQueen about the lemons' evil plot, only to be captured and sent to London the final race's setting where he, Finn and Holley are all tied to the giant gears of Big Bentley to be crushed to death.

Mater again tells Finn and Holley that he is not a spy and really is just a tow truck, and finally this time, they believe him. Mater then believed McQueen was dead and blamed himself but learns from Grem and Acer, two of the lemons inside the clock tower, that the latter is alive but only for Mater to witness his death. Horrified, Mater watched as they aimed a death ray at McQueen but nothing occurs so they resort to their back-up plan. They tell a curious Mater that they have installed a bomb in Lightning McQueen's pit, that will kill McQueen upon his arrival.

As soon as the lemons leave, Mater activates his gatling guns to cut through the ropes binding him, and races to the track to warn McQueen about the bomb. But when he gets there, he finds all his friends have gathered there to find him before Finn calls him on the radio, revealing that the lemons had tricked him and that the bomb in question is instead inside Mater's air filter as the lemons knew he'd try to save his friend.

As McQueen returns to the pit and spots him, Mater desperately drives backwards to avoid harming his friends and to avoid killing McQueen, but McQueen chases after him anyways. Mater's attempts to warn McQueen about the bomb go misunderstood. As McQueen grabs his hook, Mater accidentally activates his rockets, sending them blasting out of range of Professor Z's detonator.

The two are sent on a journey through the streets of London. The Professor admits that the bomb is voice-activated, but he neglects to mention that it could only be disarmed by the one who activated it after Mater's attempts to deactivate it himself, starting a five-minute timer. Mater attempts to reason with them, stating that he understands what it is like to be the laughingstock, an outcast, ridiculed and abused, but becoming rich and powerful beyond their wildest dreams is not going to make them feel better.

When that fails, the Radiator Springs townsfolk come to their rescue. In the subsequent fight, Mater defends McQueen against the lemons with karate chopping some six or seven of the lemons including Ivan. The remaining lemons try to escape but are stopped by Sarge and the British military who presumably arrest the criminals.

Guido then attempts to remove the bomb off Mater, but none of his wrenches fit the bolts that hold it in place. With only two and a half minutes left, Mater has an epiphany, but he hesitates to act on it, as he acknowledges to McQueen that people do not take him seriously and that they are not in Radiator Springs.

However, with some encouragement from his best friend, Mater proceeds to drag his friend all the way to Buckingham Palace, where he tells everyone that he knows who is sabotaging the race. But when he takes a moment to respectfully bow to the Queen, everyone spots the bomb and go into a panic.

Finn intervenes before the royal guard could open fire, informing them that he cannot disarm the bomb, and orders Mater to stand down now. After remarking that London is nothing at all like home, he is soon reminded by McQueen to get back on topic. With that, Mater accuses Axlerod of being the head lemon behind the whole scheme. His reasoning is that the bolts on the bomb are the same ones from the lemon engine on Holley's photo; he also realized that Axlerod did not convert from a combustion engine to an electric one, hence how he leaked oil back in Japan , blaming it on Mater, and he would probably still have it under his hood.

Mater even accuses Axelrod of disguising his voice in his statement but the latter rebukes this as guards drive off as Axelrod yells at Mater. With his bomb only down to the last ten seconds, Axlerod, realizing that his villainy has been exposed and fearing for his life, is immediately forced to deactivate the bomb, and is then arrested on the spot.

Just right as the police is about to take Axlerod away, Mater opens the lemon's hood, revealing the exact same engine as seen in Holley's photos, confirming Mater's theory. As Axlerod is left perplexed as to how a tow truck figured him out, McQueen tells Mater that he is coming to all his races from now on. Subsequently, the Queen of England knights Mater for his bravery and catching and outsmarting the evil lemon boss.

Afterwards, Mater and his friends return to Radiator Springs, where he tells everyone a tall tale-like story of his big adventure. Though Van does not believe a word of it, Finn and Holley show up to prove it. Mater then introduces Finn to everyone. He tries to introduce his friends to Holley, but Holley cuts him off, announcing herself as Mater's girlfriend to Guido's shock. Mater is then pleased to see that Holley receives a dent from their London adventure and decides to emulate him by keeping it.

McQueen and Mater wonder why the latter didn't explode because of the death ray which is revealed to be due to Sarge switching the Allinol with Fillmore 's organic fuel. While watching the unofficial Radiator Springs Grand Prix, Finn and Holley reveal that they want to recruit Mater for another mission, but he declines, preferring to stay home. The spy cars respect his decision. Finn says that Mater is the smartest and most honest chap that they ever met, and which Holley also adds, massively charming.

Holley promises to come back and take him out for their first date, and Finn offers to give Mater any favor he asks. Mater cashes in on that favor, as he receives his rocket boosters back and joins the race, with both Mater and McQueen promising to meet each other at the finish line. In Hiccups , Mater tries to get rid of McQueen's hiccups by putting his tow hook through a gap in Red's ladder and hang McQueen upside down. Sally, however, gets him to stop and solves the problem by kissing McQueen.

However, Sheriff gets the hiccups, and Mater attempts to get rid of them by kissing Sheriff, who tries to keep away. Mater makes a silent cameo in Spinning , where he joins the crowd to watch Guido spinning his sign. However, before it can start, Sandy Dunes and his pals arrive to take part in a race against McQueen. As they line up at the start line, Mater gives them directions, telling them to go left when they head towards a herd of tractors in front of a fork in the path, over the rolling hills, past the Cool Pool of Tranquility, through the Tail Lights Caverns and Enchanted Forest, and back to Radiator Springs.

As McQueen and the Baja racers zoom off, Mater dresses up as Stanley and leads the townsfolk on the leisurely tour. Mater and the townsfolk soon arrive back in Radiator Springs that evening but find no sign of the racers, unaware that they had actually took a wrong turn at the tractors when Mater told them that turning left is right, which he literally meant "right" as in that it is correct. Eventually, the racers arrive, and Mater asks them if they enjoyed their leisurely drive, to which Sandy remarks that he never thought Stanley would do anything like when they went through all of the different locations compared to the ones on the actual route.

He was also scheduled to appear in the episode To Protect and Serve [8] , although it is very likely that episode was rather canceled at this point in time. Mater is first seen interrupting McQueen as he was preparing for a race.

In the race, he shows up in the crowd, shouting him out with a larger yellow lightning bolt behind his head. Four months later after McQueen crashed in the Los Angeles International Speedway race, Mater is one of the guys that bid farewell to him as he heads to the training center.

Three days later on the night after Cruz left McQueen after training with her, Mater is seen back at Radiator Springs closing up his garage for the night; McQueen called him up and said he's going to try racing. Mater is seen again on Florida for the final race four days later, with Lightning beginning the race. When the latter wants Cruz to replace him, Sterling disapproves explaining that she is only a coach.

Mater then grabs him with his winch, saying he loves his mudflaps and prevents Sterling from interfering. Mater cheers for Cruz as the winner screen updates with Lightning McQueen's picture as both co-winners. Mater was very glad to see him stick together with a partner and blames Sterling for his meaness to Cruz. In the epilogue at Radiator Springs two days later, when Lightning was fully rebooted, Mater was in the crowd again.

Mater was very glad McQueen had a partner, and so did the other members of Radiator Springs. He is last seen after the Cars 3 credits. In a post-credits scene, Mater is singing a funny song and is cleaning in his lot, and when his iPad rings, he gets startled and jumps in fright then inadvertently knocks over his reception antenna along with tires falling down from his shack's roof, and the FaceTime on his iPad goes dead, much to his dismay.

In the Tractor Tipping minigame, McQueen asks Mater to go tractor tipping, which he agrees, surprised that McQueen would want to go tractor tipping because he thought that McQueen was frightened of Frank. He is then controlled by the player in the minigame.

He later teaches McQueen how to drive backwards, by setting out a course, where McQueen has to turn around and drive backwards at the same time as him on certain straights. After the lesson, Mater congratulates McQueen, and calls him "Mr.

Gintil", which he was trying to spell his name backwards, only to be corrected by McQueen that it is "Litnig" forwards.