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We’re bringing you some of the greatest Star Wars cars ever made. Plus, let us introduce you to some automotive fans dubbed the Road Squadron!
In a Galaxy Far, Far Away…
Star Wars started out as a simple space adventure movie and has grown into a pop culture phenomenon that’s influence has been felt for over 40 years now – and is still going strong. Disney’s continued to push the Star War’s hype train with the recent film trilogy (albeit not loved by everyone) and popular streaming series like The Mandalorian. So, Star Wars fandom is still at an all-time high and it isn’t going away for a very long time.
Luckily for us, the Star Wars craze has some influence in the automotive world, so we end up with a bunch of Star Wars cars. We’ve scoured the internet and compiled a list of the greatest Star Wars car creations ever seen! Some of the automotive industry’s top brands have jumped on the intergalactic band wagon over the years and produced some of the best Star Wars inspired cars ever seen. There is even a group of devout fans that have fully customized their own vehicles into awesome Star Wars cars. Plus, one car that isn’t just based around the Star Wars movies – it’s from them. Strap in and have your lightsabers ready as we check out some of the best Star Wars cars this side of the galaxy!
The X-34 Landspeeder – The First Car in Star Wars
Star Wars vehicles primarily use flying technology or mechanical legs to get around, but there is an actual car used on-screen in Star Wars. In fact, it’s one of the first vehicles seen in the whole franchise – Luke Skywalker’s X-34 Landspeeder from Star Wars Episode IV – A New Hope. The hovering Landspeeder Luke drives around on Tatooine was a practical effect that utilized an obscure, three-wheeled car called the Bond Bug.
The odd English car was stripped down to its chassis and the Landspeeder’s sci-fi body was rebuilt on top of it. The production team then went to work on hiding those wheels through the use of angled mirrors along the bottom, carefully angling shots to hide the bottom of the vehicle, or going back through in post and painting over the wheels frame by frame to achieve the effect of hovering off the ground. It’s a lot to go through just to bring a hover car to life, but the Landspeeder is a fan favorite vehicle.
In fact, a number of fans have gone to great lengths to build their own Star Wars Landspeeder in real life. It’s hard to find a running Bond Bug lying around anywhere, especially in the United States, but fans have found that golf carts work just as well for a base. There is one Landspeeder build of note that comes from internet mad scientist Colin Furze, who made his real-life Star Wars car with actual jet engines. I’m not advocating for fans to go out and start hobbling together jet propelled Landspeeders themselves, but you must admit that’d be a pretty cool Star Wars car to own.
The Holy Grail of Star Wars Memorabilia – a Toyota Celica
Did you know that 20th Century Fox had a special giveaway to promote the first Star Wars film? There were 1,977 prizes that people could enter for at Toyota dealerships, and while all these different pieces of original memorabilia are highly sought-after by collectors, the top prize is what’s become the “Holy Grail of Star Wars Memorabilia”. This long-lost collector’s item was the first ever officially branded Star Wars car, a fully customized 1977 Toyota Celica GT.
A California shop put the one-of-a-kind car together back in ‘77 in conjunction with Toyota and 20th Century Fox. The Celica was customized with fender flares, a spoiler, rear window louvers, tinted windows, a moonroof, and a specially designed silver and black interior. But the real showstopper of this one-of-kind Star Wars car was its paint job. The Celica was painted silver pearl and featured black galaxy stripes that showed scenes from the movie recreated through airbrushing and stencil work. The original, iconic movie poster design was even on the hood of the car.
There was an unfortunate string of circumstances that led to the contest’s grand prize winner never having been announced, but the Star Wars car resurfaced from time to time throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s. However, now it’s basically disappeared. Many people have scoured the internet and met with people in connection to the Star Wars Toyota Celica, but all of the leads point to dead ends. To make matters worse, the clearcoat used over the beautiful Star Wars artwork apparently deteriorated quickly. So, even if we do find the Star Wars car, the best part of its design connecting it to the franchise may be long gone.
Cross Promotion Star Wars Cars
The Star Wars Celica wasn’t the only cross promotion with the auto industry. Numerous commercials have featured Star Wars alongside new vehicles, like the Volkswagen Darth Vader Kid or the X-Wing seen in the Chevy Bolt EUV Walt Disney World commercial. But some brands have taken mixing Star Wars with their vehicles to a whole other level. Here are all of the cross promotional Star Wars cars.
Volkswagen
The most recent Star Wars cars of the bunch are the ones from Volkswagen that were seen at the 2022 Star Wars Celebration event. As a promotion for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, Star Wars teamed up with Volkswagen to introduce a pair of special edition ID. Buzz electric vehicles. One was the Light Side Edition featuring white paint, white wheels, blue tinted windows, blue LEDs, blue accenting, and a little bit of tan worked in like a Jedi’s cloak. The other was the blacked out Dark Side Edition that featured red accenting, red tinted windows, and red LEDs like a Sith Lord’s lightsaber. The team even added the ID. Buzz logo to the rear of these vehicles written using Aurebesh, the Star Wars alphabet.
Nissan
Nissan kicked off their cross promotion with Star Wars by not only making some fun concept vehicles, but they actually brought fans a purchasable Star Wars car. The 2017 Nissan Rogue had an available Rogue One Star Wars Limited Edition model. Only 5,400 of these Rogue models were made as part of a promotion for the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie coming out that same year. Rogue One Star Wars Limited Edition models came with special Star Wars badging, Rebel and Empire logos throughout, and were available in white or black. But the coolest part of this whole Star Wars car was that it came with a numbered to 5,400, life-sized Death Trooper with purchase. Should you buy a whole SUV just for a cool helmet? Probably not. Did I think about it when this first came out? Of course.
Nissan didn’t just stop at the special edition Nissan Rogue. The auto brand took their car designs to another galaxy for the next couple years to promote Star Wars: The Last Jedi. They made a Nissan Rogue look like an X-Wing, took it a step further and made it Poe Dameron’s X-Wing featuring BB-8 the following year, turned a Nissan Altima into a TIE Fighter, recreated Captain Phasma’s helmet with a Nissan Maxima, they also made a Maxima look like Kylo Ren’s TIE Silencer ship, made a Nissan Rogue Sport into an A-Wing, and then finally made the Nissan Titan look even more burly than it does by giving it elements from the AT-M6.
Dodge
While Nissan produced Star Wars cars for the second film in the sequel trilogy, Dodge was there to kick the new story off with their cars promoting Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The company introduced a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat and a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat that were themed to look like First Order Stormtroopers, but it was the blacked-out Dodge Viper ACR done up to look like Kylo Ren’s helmet that stole the show. Dodge took these Star Wars cars to different shows, but you may have recognized them from their commercial where they “marched” down a city street to the sound of Vader’s theme song. Albeit, without the extra decals.
Fiat
Dodge’s Star Wars cross promotion occurred after the whole Chrysler and Fiat merger that created parent company Stellantis, so Fiat had a little fun too. The Fiat 500e showed up to the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show in black and while First Order Storm Tropper guise with the help of Garage Italia Customs. That two-tone extended past the paint job and can be seen on the wheels, throughout the Alcantara upholstered interior, and Fiat even swapped out their classic red badge with a stormtrooper helmet emblem.
Renault
Now, we don’t really get anything from Renault in the states anymore, but their limited-edition ZOE Star Wars car is worth a mention. The Renault Zoe is a subcompact electric hatchback that has a pretty nice stance in the European market, so its popularity made it a good choice to promote Star Wars: Han Solo. Renault ZOE Star Wars models featured Millenium Falcon decals and some unique badging but were otherwise just a standard little ZOE. Only 1,000 of these Star Wars cars were made and they were only available in France.
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz has produced a special-edition Star Wars car… over in Japan. Mercedes-Benz of Japan introduced white and black Star Wars Editions of the CLA 180. The cars came with Star Wars branded floor mats, Star Wars branded puddle lights, and a special sun protector displaying the original cast in the Millenium Falcon’s cockpit. Dark Side CLA 180s came with an interior that featured red stitching and red LED accent lighting, while the Light Side CLA 180s came with an interior with blue stitching and blue LED accent lighting. Maybe not the typical JDM car people are after, but still pretty cool for Star Wars fans.
Hummer
Taco Bell held a promotion called “Feel the Force”, a prize giveaway celebrating the return of the original Star Wars trilogy back in theaters. Fans could win free food, a Nintendo 64, a THX surround sound home theater, or even a customized Star Wars Hummer H1. The black Hummer featured Darth Vader on the side, purple neon under glow, and had the sun visors signed by some of the original Star Wars cast. Aside from the aforementioned Star Wars Celica, this is a must have Star Wars car for collectors.
Star Wars Race Cars
Star Wars creator George Lucas is a big fan of racing. He used to race back in high school, but an accident kept him from continuing to pursue his interest behind the wheel. That racing fandom spilled over into his work as seen in his early work like American Graffiti, but it also leaked into Star Wars. I’m not just talking about Pod Racing though; I’m talking about marketing the franchise in motorsports.
When the prequels made their way to theaters, Lucas had the movies promoted through limited NASCAR liveries and promotional stunts at the tracks. Episode I was promoted on Jeff Gordon’s car, Episode II was seen on John Andretti’s car, and then they really let the marketing budget loose for Episode III. The third movie could be seen throughout the 2005 season on Jeff Gordon’s car, Elliot Sadler’s car, Dale Jarrett’s car, and Kyle Busch’s car. Even some years later the Star Wars Battlefront video game got a NASCAR design for Erik Jones’ car.
The Star Wars race cars don’t stop at NASCAR though. Episode III was also promoted on Red Bull Team’s F1 car for the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix (and is possibly my favorite F1 design ever). IndyCar also saw some Star Wars marketing on Marco Andretti’s car in 2008 promoting the animated Star Wars: Clone Wars series. Over in Australia, the Holden Racing Team threw a Star Wars livery onto their Commodore for the Bathurst 1000 to promote Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Hot Wheels
Hot Wheels has had its hands in Star Wars for a long time, but we’re not talking about the toy cars here. Hot Wheels has brought some of their Star Wars cars to life for car shows and commercials. There’s the Hot Wheels Darth Vader car that resembles his helmet just like the toy model and is built on top of a C7 Corvette Z51. Hot Wheels also introduced an X-Wing car that essentially looks like an open wheel race car merged with a wingless X-Wing. Both of the Star Wars cars are exciting to see in person at car shows and at the Hot Wheels Legends Tour, but we can’t wait to see the next one they bring to life.
Road Squadron: Star Wars Fandom on Four Wheels
All of these big brands getting in on the Star Wars fandom is great, but it’s the fan builds that show just how dedicated this fanbase is. Road Squadron is a group of Star Wars fans that take their own cars and customize them into what they call “carfighters”. The group started out as just a small clan of devout fans making fun vehicles, but it’s now comprised of hundreds of Star Wars cars. You can find members of Road Squadron at every major Star Wars event, especially at every Star Wars Celebration.
The Road Squadron fleet has recreated tons of Star Wars ships and characters with their cars, but here’s just a few notable ones. The Ghost starship from Star Wars Rebels as a Toyota RAV4, BB-8 as a Volkswagen Golf, a Nissan 350Z turned Z-Wing, a Hyundai Veloster turned into Boba Fett’s helmet, and a Ford F-150 Raptor that’s vinyl wrapped in Star Wars imagery. There’s still plenty of Star Wars cars that can be made, so you can put together your very own “carfighter” and join the ranks of Road Squadron.
