Fallout 3 vehicles

General information
In Fallout 3, there are no drivable vehicles, although there are hundreds of highly explosive, derelict vehicles that will explode violently a short while after being damaged. When a vehicle explodes, the resulting explosion can cause other vehicles close to it to explode causing a deadly chain reaction. There are also Enclave-controlled Vertibirds.

In Broken Steel, the player can visit the interior of the Brotherhood of Steel's unique vertibird, which they have captured. The player is required to use a tram cart to enter and exit The Pitt, as the tunnels are too dark and numerous to ever navigate on foot. It is also possible to ride an underground subway train in the Presidential Metro during the main questline of the Broken Steel add-on. Travelling to Point Lookout is done on a ruined pre-War ferry, the Duchess Gambit. Finally, Mothership Zeta takes place on an alien mothership.

Derelict vehicles
Two hundred years of neglect has left their defunct nuclear reactors highly volatile and prone to violently exploding if damaged. Once a vehicle catches fire, an explosion is inevitable, but more damage will hasten it. The explosion will make an area of approximately 3 meters around the car radioactive for a few seconds.

There are a variety of derelict vehicles dotting the roadways; most are large sedan-sized cars, though there are smaller, one person cars. Heavy semi-truck tractors also can be seen, and take slightly more damage to detonate, but create an explosion identical to other cars. Buses are also encountered, and their explosions are particularly large and devastating, more than twice the size of an explosion created by two cars. Smaller vehicles like motorcycles and street cleaner machines can be shot and blown up, but they do not produce a mushroom cloud explosion, in fact, their "explosion" is extremely small and short, even smaller than a frag grenade/mine explosion. It can be assumed that motorcycles and street cleaner machines are not nuclear powered because of this and the fact that they do not create radiation after exploding, and because of the miscellaneous item motorcycle gas tank.

This is presumably because on both of these vehicles the rider sits very close to the engine space, and the use of an internal combustion engine would prevent exposure to the hazardous radiation produced by a reactor. However, a suicide note found next to a motorcycle reads; "She'll (the bike) need a new toroidal coil soon". This rather contradicts the internal combustion engine because a toroidal coil is a type of electrical component which uses the electromagnetic induction field produced by electric wire wrapped round a magnetic core to produce torque about an axel, which could in turn be used as a motor to drive a wheel. This leads one to conclude that the motorcycles and probably street cleaners found in Fallout 3 are, in fact, powered by a battery of some sort.

Derelict vehicles can either be a hazard or a tactical option in combat. If an enemy is positioned near a derelict vehicle, shooting the vehicle can set it off, dealing massive damage to the enemy and the surrounding area. Likewise, it is strongly discouraged to use a vehicle as cover from enemy fire. If you are near a vehicle and you see it catch fire, get away from it as quickly as you can before it explodes. Killing an enemy by exploding a vehicle will not get you a finger or an ear for the Lawbringer and Contract Killer perks.

Often, vehicles in close proximity will set each other off in a chain reaction. The high probability of accidentally starting a chain reaction makes getting into a gunfight in some locations, like the Collapsed Car Tunnel, very risky.

There are some derelict vehicles that will not explode no matter how much weapons fire is poured into them. One can discern these from the more dangerous variety by examining the trunk; if the hatch is missing and one can see an empty basin in the back, the reactor is no longer present.

Explosive Capabilities
None of the vehicles have particularly damaging explosions compared to the VB-02 Vertibird. With 85 DR and Adamantium Skeleton you will only suffer around 40 hitpoints of damage (compared to the Vertibirds 80+) from even the largest vehicle explosion (bus), and all limb damage will be entirely negligible. Smaller vehicle explosions are not dangerous at all, even during chain reactions as they will only inflict 20-30 damage per explosion and deal very little limb damage as well.

Vehicles serving as game locations

 * Duchess Gambit (Point Lookout)
 * Mothership Zeta (Mothership Zeta)
 * Hand Car (The Pitt)
 * SSN-37-1A (Point Lookout)
 * Subway Train (Broken Steel)

Other vehicles

 * Bomber (Operation: Anchorage)
 * City Liner
 * Chimera (Operation: Anchorage)
 * Corvega
 * Recon Craft Theta
 * Vertibird
 * CMR Monorail
 * Metro Cars
 * Presidential Metro (Broken Steel)