Any car will die if it had a transistorized ignition and the EMP was very powerful. That means back to the early 60’s.
On the flip side, most systems can be shielded. It’s just not financially sound for manufacturers to produce vehicles like that currently.
If there is a EMP pulse, I am confident most of my hardware and systems and vehicles will be fine for the most part, maybe something like a 40% loss in system availability, while I manually diagnose all the random failures.
I also have a several generators. Not running, they will still have a induced voltage, but more than likely, the voltage rises won’t be great enough to damage their already voltage spiked protected systems. I seriously doubt in the worst case, that the coils themselves will be melted. It will simply be a matter of conjuring up the silicon parts in the various regulator components, etc.
I would also say the older cars are the most venerable. While modern cars are no heavily shielded, the computers and ignition active components are already lightly shielded to keep their electronic noise inside the box...
I gotta ask: Has Anyone Done Homework On Which Vehicles Would Be Hardened Against EMP?
BTW, my 1991 Kawasaki 100 still has non-transistorized ignition (works like a charm, points and all). I think they finally went to CDI in about 2000.
When the oil rigs die, the field oil pumps die, the oil line pumps die, the refineries die, the trains hauling tank cars die, the local tanker trucks die, and the pumps at the local gas station die, you may have some difficulty finding fuel for your generators. A big enough EMP and we are in for some serious trouble. No water, no sewage treatment, no food production, no shipping or logistics, no way to run the factories to produce the replacement electrical transformers. We would be in a world of hurt.