The Santler was a British car built in Malvern Link, Worcestershire, England, between 1889 and 1922. They have a good claim to be Britain's first makers of petrol driven cars.

The Santler brothers Charles (1864-1940) and Walter (1867-1942) ran a small general engineering company started by their father in about 1875. They moved into the bicycle business and in 1887 designed a small steam engine which they had running in 1889 and installed in a four-wheeled chassis. All of this was being done in their spare time while the business moved on to electrical installation with small generators run by steam or gas engines or water turbines. One of their clients was the mother of pioneering motorist Evelyn Ellis. Using the expertise gained with small engines, Charles adapted one of the gas engines to replace the steam engine in their experimental car. The fuel was compressed town gas stored in a tank under the chassis, but this was heavy and gave the car a limited range. Around 1894 the engine was replaced again by a single-cylinder petrol one. There has been some controversy over the exact date this was done but in 1986 it was confirmed by the dating committee of the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain. The car still exists but not with the original engine.

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods.

The term motorcar has also been used in the context of electrified rail systems to denote a car which functions as a small locomotive but also provides space for passengers and baggage. These locomotive cars were often used on suburban routes by both interurban and intercity railroad systems.

There are approximately 600 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car per eleven people). Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in 2007; the engines of these burn over a billion cubic meters (260 billion US gallons) of petrol/gasoline and diesel fuel yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.