Purpose of buying cars

[seppl55555 1]

Hey guys,

I really like things to spend money on but is there any advantage of buying cars? I also dont get the "special car" thing in the garage. Where are these cars coming from? I at the very beginning so please no spoilers. Thanks

[Santiago 64]

Just rob them. Pfft, buying cars in a GTA game.

[SpittyTheDude 74]

Yes the advantage is that they get saved in the special garage. You can always pick them up I think.

[PimpLippy 35]

you can keep cars you nicked in the garage as well, got a dominatior in Micheal's one

i like having the garages in the safe houses aswell, although i can't work out how to find out what cars are owned and which are nicked

[Handsome B Wonderful 331]

I think the difference between buying cars and stealing them is bought cars get impounded if you lose them,whereas stolen vehicles disappear into the abyss if you don't store them in a garage. I learnt this the hard way when I spent about $50000 decking out a ruster Phoenix I found in the desert for Trevor, only for it to disappear after a mission. Boy was I pissed. And the sweet photos I took of it wouldn't load either. RIP aluminium silver with red stripe Phoenix. We hardly knew thee.

[SpittyTheDude 74]

I think the difference between buying cars and stealing them is bought cars get impounded if you lose them,whereas stolen vehicles disappear into the abyss if you don't store them in a garage. I learnt this the hard way when I spent about $50000 decking out a ruster Phoenix I found in the desert for Trevor, only for it to disappear after a mission. Boy was I pissed. And the sweet photos I took of it wouldn't load either. RIP aluminium silver with red stripe Phoenix. We hardly knew thee.

Same shit happened to me! Found a Phoenix(man that car is rare) and pimped it for Trevor, started mission, never saw it again.

The thing is, you can't buy the Phoenix.

But another time I stole a Vapid, tuned it and it got impounded... really weird.

[Truth 429]

The purpose of buying cars is you all complained about not being able to spend money on shit then suggested that we should be able to buy cars so Rockstar listened and now that you can y'all still can't figure it out.

[Handsome B Wonderful 331]

I think the difference between buying cars and stealing them is bought cars get impounded if you lose them,whereas stolen vehicles disappear into the abyss if you don't store them in a garage. I learnt this the hard way when I spent about $50000 decking out a ruster Phoenix I found in the desert for Trevor, only for it to disappear after a mission. Boy was I pissed. And the sweet photos I took of it wouldn't load either. RIP aluminium silver with red stripe Phoenix. We hardly knew thee.

Same shit happened to me! Found a Phoenix(man that car is rare) and pimped it for Trevor, started mission, never saw it again. The thing is, you can't buy the Phoenix. But another time I stole a Vapid, tuned it and it got impounded... really weird.

hmm... this has me thinking.

Once, I turned up at Franklin's garage to store a car, and I got a message saying it was full. I left my car outside and went in to take one of the others out. When I got back outside, the first car had disappeared. So I went back into the garage, thinking it may have been automatically moved back in there, but there was nothing. I took out another car, and the second car I had taken out had disappeared also.

I have a theory that entering internal locations that require loading causes the game to forget where all non-essential cars are located. Your stolen car can be impounded, but it will only be impounded if the game isn't required to load a location or switch character before you are notified that your car has been impounded. If you don't get the notice before loading, then it's bye-bye car. I guess it's a glitch that R* will want to fix soon. Or just a crackpot theory. I'm off to test it now.

[gtagrl 4316]

Steal the car, buy the upgrades.

[Handsome B Wonderful 331]

Steal the car, buy the upgrades.

This. I just tested that theory in my previous post, and I think I'm right. Regardless of whether the car is bought or stolen, if you enter a location (go inside a garage, paint shop etc), or switch character before you get an impounded message on your phone, that car will disappear for good. Might as well save money, because there doesn't seem to be any perks to buying cars, especially if they are going to disappear into fat air..

Can someone else with the PS3 version check this out. I have the 360 version.

[SpittyTheDude 74]

Imo the cars from Legendary Motorsport can only be bought. Haven't encountered any of these hypercars yet.