Real-life movie cars worth the cost

“Grandpa, you need a ’Mater…like in the movie Cars.”

When Roger Waderidch’s grandkids showed him the movie, he thought it would be fun to have a ‘Mater tow truck in front of his new acreage just outside of Denison, Iowa. Roger operates a towing service and knew a junkyard that had just the truck. He didn’t even have to buy it—they gave it to him. A little shop doctoring and paint and ta-da: one ’Mater tow truck.

Then, the grandkids thought ’Mater needed a Lightning McQueen race car to keep him company. So Roger tracked down a red Firebird, hired a painter to give it an authentic look, and put that on display, too. “I thought at the time that the painter charged a little too much,” Roger said.

But then he had ’Mater parked in front of his shop in Denison and got a call. “Roger, you’ve got to see this—there’s a kid in a wheelchair down here getting his picture taken with your truck. He thinks it’s the greatest thing ever!’”

“After that, I realized the artist could have charged me anything and it would be worth it.”