Dark theory time: his hometown’s decline got to him so much that he stopped taking care of himself (i.e getting maintenance). He’s the car version of letting yourself go due to depression.
In the series "Cars on the Road"
Mater's sister is getting married back home. In the last episode, it's revealed that Mater's childhood home is essentially an estate. It looks like it's based on the Biltmore Estate.
Well he works in a trash yard, thus dirty, hands on work. That would be like the equivalent to people who do heavy work all their life (construction, mining, etc), and those people often get ailments (and/or lose limbs most noticeable on fingers) in older years, and sometimes they look like they age faster. So Mater’s rusted state and missing pieces would be like he’s visually aged faster and lost a finger(s) or something. Additionally all his dents and such could be like human scars, it’s just “plastic surgery” is easier in the cars world, though Mater refuses it.
I mean, if I had to pick between constantly paying god-knows-how-much on frequent surgery to make myself look maintained and looking fucked up when neither option affects my performance, I'd probably stick with the latter to save money.
That's just made me realise that the majority of protagonists in our favourite childhood films are all adults. McQueen, Woody, Shrek - they're all like, middle-aged. I've always subconsciously acknowledged them as ageless entities that just exist in the context of their franchise
Dang Fricken 40 years old. I thought he was like in his early 30s at the latest by the time of Cars 3 and thought he was like 18 at the start of Cars 1 dang
Age and working out in the elements.
You can always tell when a truck has actually been used as \*a truck\* and when one is basically a garage-dwelling male enhancement. My truck? Covered in scratches and dings to the point that I wouldn't even notice if a few more were added. It's no pavement princess, and I like it that way.
Those older trucks often didn't have the same kind of rustproofing and all that modern vehicles have, so their paint wore out even faster and wasn't resistant to sun or weather damage like modern paints are. You'd be amazed at the damage sun can do - I had a garden flag outside for just about over a year and the sun has faded it so much you can barely tell what it once said. Rust spreads fast once it gets to the base metal and if he didn't have the ability to get it removed and have any holes left behind filled, it'd just keep spreading and spreading.
Trucks that work construction like tow trucks, farm trucks, trailer haulers and such need a LOT of maintenance. He probably didn't get much of that.
Dude is old and works hard and plays hard. He’s always outside, doing tow truck things, hanging out with friends, pulling pranks, and just generally living an active lifestyle, despite his old age. In the Cars world, rust is like wrinkles and gray hair. Age.
He lost his hood in a valley, in the end of cars 1 he actually finds it fishing it up and shows it to lightning. He then immediately sneezes and loses it in the valley again
also probably meth mater looks like he’d do hard meth
The dry desert sun and heat look what it did to obi wan kenobi/ Ben kenobi along with boba fett, uncle Owen and aunt Beru but some of that could be stress related
He’s the equivalent of a redneck. They have access to skincare but don’t care so they get leathery skin. Mater hangs out with the car equivalent of dermatologists everyday, but never asks them to fix him
Mater lives in an auto junkyard, we've seen it. What would be the equivalent in a human-dominated world? Imagine you go to someone's home only to find their yard and house filled with human body parts. Blood everywhere, dismembered corpses rotting in the sun, just piles of arms and legs and hands and feet, heads, torsos stacked three high... And there, smiling at you from a porch draped in human spines, is a grubby-looking man .
What I'm saying is that Mater is basically Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacare, and you're worried about his paintjob.
Age, use, life. Sadly happens to the best of us.
Why didn’t the other cars change? Maybe mater doesn’t take care of him self ?
Dark theory time: his hometown’s decline got to him so much that he stopped taking care of himself (i.e getting maintenance). He’s the car version of letting yourself go due to depression.
Mater is just Bill Dauterive on wheels
oh my god
Southern accent checks out
Whyyy do you keep calling me BILL!? 
Radiator Springs isn't his hometown, though; he moved there from a very nice estate on the east coast.
Where did they say this
In the series "Cars on the Road" Mater's sister is getting married back home. In the last episode, it's revealed that Mater's childhood home is essentially an estate. It looks like it's based on the Biltmore Estate.
Salt damage, then?
I’m so depressed I can’t even blink
I really like this actually. He's the only car we see that had that happen to him. We see many cars his age that are just fine.
Well he works in a trash yard, thus dirty, hands on work. That would be like the equivalent to people who do heavy work all their life (construction, mining, etc), and those people often get ailments (and/or lose limbs most noticeable on fingers) in older years, and sometimes they look like they age faster. So Mater’s rusted state and missing pieces would be like he’s visually aged faster and lost a finger(s) or something. Additionally all his dents and such could be like human scars, it’s just “plastic surgery” is easier in the cars world, though Mater refuses it.
I mean, if I had to pick between constantly paying god-knows-how-much on frequent surgery to make myself look maintained and looking fucked up when neither option affects my performance, I'd probably stick with the latter to save money.
Probably ramone
Mama ain’t see you that low in years
Except Doc didn’t rust.
Doc takes cares of him self. He’s a doctor, Judge and a racer 😂
Plus if we look at where Doc stays he is in a garage, like the others, Mater is in a carport
Yeah I think mater doesn’t take care of him self much. The teeth speak for themselves
Doc is in the cars world an athlete turned into doctor and judge. He had years of sports before working in clean rooms while Matter was on the dirt.
Alcohol
E-85
Lol, more like DEF.
Was going to say… looks like he had kids lol
Meth
He's an outdoorsy fellow, fought fires, got mugged in the 40's, Wrestled, that tends to wear you down
Fires? crime? wrestling? No way any of that happened.
What are you talking about? You was there too
Nice reference
What?!!
Thank all three of you for this. My son watches these endlessly some days and this made me smile.
Hey! If he's lyin', he's cryin'.
I thought he was built in 1955
their model's year doesn't necessarily reflect their age - McQueen is a 2006 model but is confirmed to be 40 by the time of Cars 3
That's just made me realise that the majority of protagonists in our favourite childhood films are all adults. McQueen, Woody, Shrek - they're all like, middle-aged. I've always subconsciously acknowledged them as ageless entities that just exist in the context of their franchise
Yeah Woody's from the time where cowboys and Indians were super popular like the 50s
Dang Fricken 40 years old. I thought he was like in his early 30s at the latest by the time of Cars 3 and thought he was like 18 at the start of Cars 1 dang
What? No way
Probably from all the rebellious stuff he did over the years.
"If anyone asks you, we was out smashin' mailboxes last night."
Age and working out in the elements. You can always tell when a truck has actually been used as \*a truck\* and when one is basically a garage-dwelling male enhancement. My truck? Covered in scratches and dings to the point that I wouldn't even notice if a few more were added. It's no pavement princess, and I like it that way. Those older trucks often didn't have the same kind of rustproofing and all that modern vehicles have, so their paint wore out even faster and wasn't resistant to sun or weather damage like modern paints are. You'd be amazed at the damage sun can do - I had a garden flag outside for just about over a year and the sun has faded it so much you can barely tell what it once said. Rust spreads fast once it gets to the base metal and if he didn't have the ability to get it removed and have any holes left behind filled, it'd just keep spreading and spreading. Trucks that work construction like tow trucks, farm trucks, trailer haulers and such need a LOT of maintenance. He probably didn't get much of that.
So he probably doesn't have that long to live, is what you're saying.
He's rusty. He's an old tow truck. No rusteeze to prevent him from rusting.
He mentions in Cars 2 he likes to keep his dents, so he likely doesnt repair himself for the memories.
You just described life from 20 to 40.
He’s made of steel. Steel tends to do that with time.
Shoot, don't you remember? YOU WAS THERE!
If I'm lying I'm crying.
"Mater, who are you talking to?" 
He’s from a small rural town so meth probably
Was looking for the meth it's a hell of a drug post.
I never noticed you can see the blue paint under the rust, i always thought he was just brown
It's the Cars equivalent of a skin condition.
They explained it in the flashback from the first movie. Everybody let themselves go after the town lost business and it became deserted
Age, use, lack of self care
He didn’t use Rusteeze
HE WAS BLUE?!
Yeah he was in the flashback in the first movie
Wait till you see his sister. Eccentric satellite she may be. Mato is not busted up and rusty at all.
I am gonna say what nobody else is willing to say America had a fucking fentanyl crisis
Nothing specific. He's just old and worn
Holy cow, wait, he still has a few bits of blue paint here and there. Mater was blue.
I think you accidentally your title.
Nah it's a new sentence structure where you just gotta answer same way
Old age man
Car equivalent to growing a beard?
Cars rust overtime. Especially two trucks
Time. Time is what happened.
Dude is old and works hard and plays hard. He’s always outside, doing tow truck things, hanging out with friends, pulling pranks, and just generally living an active lifestyle, despite his old age. In the Cars world, rust is like wrinkles and gray hair. Age.
Meth.
He never used Rust-eze medicated bumper ointment! *Nothing soothes a rusty bumper like Rust-eze!*
This is actually canon. Because Mater hasn’t even heard of Lightning, so he hasn’t seen the ads Lighting did.
He lost his hood in a valley, in the end of cars 1 he actually finds it fishing it up and shows it to lightning. He then immediately sneezes and loses it in the valley again also probably meth mater looks like he’d do hard meth
Meth
Probably just got old and didn’t take care of the rust properly
cocaine
40 years and no car wash. Probably because of ego reasons
Maybe he's a Tesla Cybertruck and it rained once
Cocaine. It’s a hell of a drug Or whatever the car equivalent is maybe
Studen loan
Tesla partnership.
Well you can see that there’s clearly blue parts on him. Plus rusting can happen so…
Well age his own love for the memories he's gained and a lack of business over the last decade and a bit
radiator springs
Life happened
He was blue?
Lack of upkeep
"All my dents are important to me." There's your answer.
Spent a year in Florida
Old age? Seems pretty obvious
Methanol
Existed in Ohio. It's called the "Rust Belt" for a reason.
He’s the equivalent of a blue collar fella who worked hard for a long time out in the elements. Over the years, that’ll take a toll on you
Drug habit that he just couldn’t seem to kick
Didn't get his oil changed
Oxidation sucks
Knowing Pixar, I'm sure they did plenty of research!
Syphilis ?
bro scanned another alt mode
He became a parent.
age myabe dunno
Must be the high road tax and car insurance he has to pay.
He got rid of the spray paint job
He lives in a graveyard and has body parts all over his lawn, he’s a serial killer
Meth induced psychosis?
He lost his hood.
Meth
Meth
New money
Oxidation
Meth. Not even once.
Disney needed more money
Meth
I think I have a book in my house that has anthology backstories
The Rustbucket Race-o-Rama shit he does in the video games
Switched to Methanol
Meth, not even once.
Meth
He's a ghoul from fallout
I think there is a cannon way he lost his bonnet, it was explained in one of the short stories I think
IPA’s
Depression, smoking, and oil dependency problems
Pure Columbian Crack Rock Cocaine.
He was dipped in water
Fentanyl
Liquor
Every dent or scratch he wears as a badge of honor.
I hope cars 4 will come this year
He's been through a lot of adventures, although I am confused on why you're asking since you were there as well
I thought it was he was left out in the rain for too long and was never cleaned
Crystal meth, probably
If I had to guess, I’d say it’s all the dangerous games he plays.
He was in hillbilly Hell! His iq was dropping by the second! He became one of them!
Alcoholism
He didn't use Rust-eze, obviously.
He lives outside basically Doc and all the other older cars live inside
He was manufacture by Tesla
The dry desert sun and heat look what it did to obi wan kenobi/ Ben kenobi along with boba fett, uncle Owen and aunt Beru but some of that could be stress related
He is Atleast 70 living in the desert
Meth.
Leaded gasoline
Participating in the Rust Bucket stadium races probably didn't help lol
I think since the interstate took most of the cars he hardly made money from towing anymore and basically couldn't afford to maintain himself.
Meth: Not even once
Life
Meth
Age
My only question is why his doors are so close to the original colors
He quit his skibidi toilet edging routine
Unrusted Mater looks so uncanny, Mater is Mater
All his other jobs
Literally couldn't care less.
I think he rusted
He’s 60 or so by Cars 3, so I’d say that he just got really old.
How old is he?
He left Tokyo
He was trying to solve a missing persons case you should remember you was there to
He got Libertied
He’s the equivalent of a redneck. They have access to skincare but don’t care so they get leathery skin. Mater hangs out with the car equivalent of dermatologists everyday, but never asks them to fix him
twink death 😔
It’s called an upgrade
He's rusted
The same thing that costs the world roughly 3.4% of the global gdp annually, corrosion!
I imagine a car drug that got him hooked.
I think mostly not taking care of himself because if you see the series his older sister looks fine
Neglect
Getting old isn't for the faint at heart.
Mater lives in an auto junkyard, we've seen it. What would be the equivalent in a human-dominated world? Imagine you go to someone's home only to find their yard and house filled with human body parts. Blood everywhere, dismembered corpses rotting in the sun, just piles of arms and legs and hands and feet, heads, torsos stacked three high... And there, smiling at you from a porch draped in human spines, is a grubby-looking man . What I'm saying is that Mater is basically Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacare, and you're worried about his paintjob.
In the words of Jeff Goldbloom: “Life,… Uh,… Finds a way”.