The vacant car sits on the side of the Cross Island Parkway earlier this morning.

A man committed suicide by dousing himself and the inside of his vehicle with gasoline and then setting the car ablaze on the shoulder of a Queens highway early Wednesday, police sources said.

Firefighters responded to a report of a car fire on the shoulder of the southbound Cross Island Parkway near Northern Boulevard in Bayside around 5:25 a.m., officials said.

Barry Marvin, 50, said he was sleeping in his home near where the car was found and woke when he heard an explosion.

“We thought someone slammed into the house,” he said. “Then five minutes later another explosion with flames shooting up 15 to 20 feet into the sky.”

After extinguishing the flames, firefighters found a badly burned body in the driver’s seat.

“We saw them pull the body out on a stretcher. There wasn’t much in the [body] bag.”

Police sources said the man, 41, stopped by his uncle’s BP station, where he soaked himself and the car with gas before driving off and phoning relatives to say he intended to burn himself to death.

Police believe he then parked his 2005 Nissan Sentra on the side of the highway and ignited himself, engulfing the entire car in flames.

Police did not identify the man, but said he had a history of psychiatric issues.