Songfacts®:

• Many of Springsteen's songs are about fictional characters, but he called this one "the exciting story of my own personal life." It's really about his father Doug, who spent a lot of time buying, driving, and fixing used cars. The song tells a story about one of his trip to a dealership where he buys yet another used car; he says if he ever hits the lottery, he'll finally get a brand new one.
  
  "When I was growing up, he had every kind of used car possible," Springsteen said when introducing the song at a 2005 concert in New Jersey. "He had the used car without the heat, he had the used car without the muffler, he had the used car with the bad brakes, he had the used car that doesn't go in reverse. Then of course, let's not forget the used car that just won't start.
  
  And the worst part, my room was out over the backyard and I'd hear him in the morning out on that ice-cold ground in the middle of winter trying to get the thing started. Then he would take us on a forced march on Sunday - our family day - and we would go for a ride. It was brutal. The used car without the muffler, when we passed a police car, he used to have to turn the thing off and coast by."
• This is one of several songs in Springsteen's ouvre that deals with his father. Others include "Growin' Up," "Factory," and "Mansion On The Hill."
  
  "I slammed the old bastard so much in so many songs," Springsteen said. "I made such a fortune on him, I gotta say some good things about him once in a while. What would I have written about if all things had gone well?"
• "Used Cars" is part of Springsteen's Nebraska album, which is made up of songs he made in his home studio on a 4-track tape recorder. They were meant to be demos, but when he tried recording them with his E Street Band, he thought they sounded better as he originally recorded them, so he released them that way.
• Ani DiFranco covered this song in 2000 on Badlands, a tribute album of songs from the album Nebraska.