Diecast cars and vans are products that are exact miniature replicas to scale of the original designs.
Larger sizes are usually made of metal and smaller products all plastic. These days many of the metal diecast products have plastic parts.
Die-cast products are made in molds that keep their scale size exactly in proportion.
Handmade metal cars are quite different products and are hand welded and riveted from metal parts and may not have true replica scale.
The term die-cast refers to any toy or decorative collectible models, that have been manufactured by using the die casting system. The products used are metal, with plastic, rubber, or glass details. Fully plastic models are made by a similar but different process called injection molding.