1976-1988, 2010-2011Ric Ocasek (Richard Otcasek)Vocals, guitar
Ben Orr (Benjamin Orzechowski)Bass, vocals
Elliot Easton (Elliot Steinberg)Guitar
Greg HawkesKeyboards
David RobinsonDrums
Todd RundgrenVocals, guitar2005-
Cars frontman Ric Ocasek met the Czech supermodel Paulina Porizkova on the set for their 1984 video for "
Drive." They got married in 1989 and had two boys (Ocasek had four other children from two previous marriages). The couple separated in 2017, two years before Ocasek's death. Porizkova married television director/producer Jeff Greenstein in 2026.
Bassist Ben Orr (real name Benjamin Orzechowski) died October 3, 2000 of pancreatic cancer. He vowed to continue playing music until he was dead. Honoring that vow, Ben was on stage performing with his band Big People on August 25, 2000. He passed away at his Atlanta home five weeks later. There is footage of him
performing with Big People that July.
In the 1960s, Orr was in a Cleveland band named The Grasshoppers. They opened for the Beach Boys and had their own fan club. They were even the house band for a Cleveland-based TV show titled Upbeat (it punched way above its weight and acted as springboard to multiple national talents, including Bob Seger). Their biggest hits were "Mod Socks" and "Pink Champagne." They broke up because a couple members got drafted to the Vietnam War. Orr moved on to a band named Mixed Emotions.
Ocasek dropped out of both Antioch College and Bowling Green University in order to be a professional musician.
Ocasek and Orr recorded an album together before the Cars under the name Milkwood. Cars keyboardist Greg Hawkes played keyboards on it. Titled How's the Weather and released in 1972, it didn't make many waves.
Drummer David Robinson had been a member of Jonathan Richman's Modern Lovers and DMZ.
Ocasek made a name for himself as a producer. Early on, he produced bands like Romeo Void and Suicide, and later worked with Weezer, Guided By Voices, Bad Religion, No Doubt, and other prominent acts. He did Weezer's multi-Platinum first and third albums (informally called the Blue Album and Green Album, respectively).
In 1978, the Cars were named the Best New Artist by Rolling Stone (in a readers' poll) and Creem, among others.
In 1979, they lost the Best New Artist Grammy to disco act A Taste of Honey, who are generally remembered as a one-hit wonder for their song "
Boogie Oogie Oogie" (though they did actually also have a #3 in 1981 with their remake of the Japanese song "
Sukiyaki").
The first Cars show was performed at Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire on New Year's Eve 1976.
The Cars broke up in 1988 due mainly to tensions within the band, especially between Ric Ocasek and Benjamin Orr. Before the death of Orr, Ocasek ruled out any possibility of a Cars reunion, saying that he would rather have "hot diarrhea for six months than tour with the Cars for six months."
In 2003, Ocasek was named senior vice president of A&R (Artists and Repertoire) at Elektra Records. According to The Boston Globe, "Technically his job is to scout and sign new bands. But Elektra is investing in more than a fresh pair of ears."
Ric Ocasek was booted off producing Hanson's second album after three weeks. Ocasek had a strict rule of no corporate presence during recording sessions, which was a problem for Hanson's record company.
Ocasek's father worked as a systems analyst for NASA on Top sSecret projects. Ric recalled one time when government agents visited his house and questioned his mother about the dreams his father had at night.
In 2005, guitarist Elliot Easton and Hawkes joined Todd Rundgren to form "The New Cars," performing many of The Cars' hits. Drummer David Robinson was invited to join but was happily retired from music and politely declined. They began their first tour, the Road Rage Tour, in May 2006, splitting the bill with Blondie. The first leg of the tour was cut short when the tour bus swerved to avoid another vehicle and sent Easton tumbling out of his bunk, breaking his clavicle. He tried to continue but playing was too painful, so they took a break and resumed in November, now naming it the Road Rage Winter Tour. They toured until December and called it quits. Rundgren in particular was frustrated by the experience, as he was fully invested and thought it had real potential, but things just didn't click. They released an original single titled "Not Tonight" and a live album titled It's Alive!, but neither of them gained any traction.
Ocasek had initially given his blessing and well-wishing to old friends Easton and Hawkes but held disdain for the whole New Cars project. While a guest on the April 17, 2006, episode of The Colbert Report, he chose Todd Rundgren out of all people on Earth when Colbert asked who he would most like to put on notice (this was a recurring Colbert bit, where guests were basically invited to throw shade at a rival).
The group reunited in 2010, releasing the album Move Like This in May 2011. A motivation for Ocasek: his youngest children had never seen him as a rock star.
The reunion didn't last long: They toured for less than three weeks before calling it quits. The next time they appeared together was when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. It was their last performance, as Ocasek died the following year.
In 1984 The Cars won the inaugural Best Video of the Year award from the very first MTV Music Video Awards show for "
You Might Think."
In his September 2025 book The Cars: Let the Stories Be Told, author Bill Janovitz revealed that the surviving Cars members were working on a new album using archival recordings by Ocasek. No official release date was revealed, but track titles include "I Just Can't Stay," "Crazy Over You," "One By One," "Can't Stop The Rain," and "The Factory."
In September 2026 Easton and Hawkes made a rare joint appearance, performing together at the Fine Arts Auditorium at Armstrong State University in Savannah, Georgia, as part of the school's "Behind the Hits" concert series.
Released June 6, 1978, their self-titled debut album remained on the Billboard 200 for 139 weeks and sold more than 6 million copies.
In 1983, Ocasek released his debut solo album, Beatitudes, which hit #28. Ocasek refused to use session musicians and instead drew talent from the local Boston area for all the instrumentation.
The Cars eschewed stage theatrics. They didn't use special effects, dance around on stage, or play up to the crowd. This got them the reputation for being "cold" to their fans. In a 1988 interview with Roy Trakin of Creem, Ocasek addressed their reputation head-on: "Pop is assembly-line music," Ocasek said. "So is pop art. It's kinda what America's about, which makes it somewhat fitting. It's not coldness, it's just that people aren't used to not being told how to react, especially at a rock concert. We're unconditioning them. I don't even know if we are consciously getting them to think that, but I'd rather they go, 'What did they do?,' than 'They were slightly better than Bon Jovi because they jumped higher.'"
