Vehicles

"You were killed by an exploding vehicle. Cars on fire are likely to explode."

- Death Message in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Vehicles are static, destroyable objects in the Call of Duty series.

Purpose
Cars are environmental objects on the various multiplayer maps and single-player levels in the Call of Duty series. They can either take the form of civilian cars (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) or trucks (Call of Duty: World at War). Cars are littered across the maps (usually on the streets) and can easily be destroyed with explosives, light machine guns, etc. When cars sustain enough damage, they will catch on fire. Cars on fire will sustain constant damage until it explodes. This puts the player at great risk whenever they decide to hide behind a vehicle and can cause great frustration, especially if they were killed in either the multiplayer or singleplayer levels due to this.

Exceptions
Not all cars are stationary objects. One exception is the car the player is in, in the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare level "The Coup". Another exception is the car seen in the Call of Duty: World at War level "Vendetta", in which General Amsel rides in at the start and at the end when Reznov and Dimitri attempt to kill him. Gary "Roach" Sanderson and Joseph Allen ride in two different cars in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as well, while several civilian cars driven by Brazilian citizens and gangs in "Takedown". Even in Call of Duty, there was a mission in which the protagonist has to escape a tank by driving a car.

Multiplayer
In Multiplayer, the last player to damage the car gets any kills from it. Therefore allies are unaffected by explosions from cars as long as the player shoots them last. Likewise, in hardcore they may incur teamkills for no apparent reason if they leave flaming cars around. Kills by cars do not count towards the Danger Close Pro challenges. Here is a list of Multiplayer levels containing destroyable cars.

Challenges
Unlocked at Level 18 XP Reward: 50, 100, 250
 * Vandalism I, II, III- Destroy 1, 5, 15 cars.

Unlocked at Level 45 XP Reward: 50, 100, 250
 * Car Bomb- Kill an enemy by blowing up a car near them.

Trivia

 * Many of the cars in the game look like real-life vehicles. For example in Modern Warfare 2, there is a hatchback which closely resembles a Honda Fit, a SUV that appears to look like a Cadillac Escalade (The word "Vioxy" appears on the side of the SUV, indicating it may have had a major role such as a playable vehicle early in development) and a pick-up that resembles a older Toyota Hilux, which can be found with a mounted machine gun in the campaign level "The Hornet's Nest", as well as many modern tanks and Humvees. A coupe that resembles a Scion tC and a hatchback that represents an old Fiat 500, a vehicle which grille closely resembles a mercedes-benz (oddly in MW2 mission team player it never ever blow up).
 * On the level 'Exodus', right at the start, if the player goes to the opposite side of Honey Badger and stays on the pavement they will see a civilian driving a red car come up the street and crash into some barriers blocking the road. The car will blow up, and if the player looks inside the exploded car, there will be no remains.


 * Cars instantly explode if the player jump onto them from far up.


 * Call of Duty 3 is has the most variety of vehicles in multiplayer. This includes: German Panzer IV tank, American M4 Sherman tank, American Harley motorcycle with sidecar, German Volkswagen, and American Willys Jeep.
 * Most vehicles in Modern Warfare 2 have Infinity Ward references on their license plates.
 * In Call of Duty: Black Ops, the player can fly an Mi-24 Hind in the mission Payback: the first player-controlled helicopter in single-player.
 * In the first mission of Black Ops, the player will fight against Cuban police who drive Checker cars.
 * In Vorkuta, at the end of the mission, the player will drive a motorcycle to get to the train.
 * On Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, the player can deflate cars on multiplayer by shooting the tires.