Touches a model in passenger vehicle (5)
I believe the answer is:
abuts
'touches' is the definition.
(abutting is a kind of touching)
'a model in passenger vehicle' is the wordplay.
'model' becomes 't' (Ford Model T car).
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'passenger vehicle' becomes 'bus' (I've seen this before).
't' put inside 'bus' is 'buts'.
'a'+'buts'='ABUTS'
(Other definitions for abuts that I've seen before include "borders" , "Touches, leans on" , "Of building, is next to" , "Lies adjacent to another" , "Ends or leans against" .)