The world of second-hand car dealing is a cutthroat business. Not only do you have to be wary of the competition, but you’ll also have to be keenly aware of customers looking to lowball you at every business transaction. The upside is that if you play your cards right, you could be walking away with a huge stack of cash. All it takes is a little bit of patience and elbow grease.
Car Dealer Simulator is a management simulator game that sees your character start as an errand boy at a car dealership, eventually becoming a partner, and if you play your cards right, the full owner of the establishment.
You start the game as a new employee at Little Sam’s local car dealership. The onboarding process is basically a tutorial in disguise, teaching you everything from bargaining with car owners to cleaning cars to increase their value. It’s a neat, seamless process that fits in well with the setting. Eventually, the boss will teach you the “tricks of the trade” involving an odometer manipulator. It was at that moment that I was reminded of Matilda’s dad and how much of a scumbag I thought he was. I guess, Harvey Dent was right, as I lived long enough to see myself become the villain.
Like many car simulator games, Car Dealer Simulator features a world map large enough to accommodate a small town and a few other countryside locations. This actually means something, as you can go to places and attach cars to dolly trailers. There are two ways to find cars out in the world: you either schedule a meeting and negotiate with the car’s owner or find wrecks after receiving tips from people. As I soon found out after restoring my first wreck, the act of restoring a wreck into something presentable is a very time-consuming task if you are operating out of a one-man dealership.
The game’s progression goes something like this: you start by cleaning a car via a foam wash. But that alone won’t entice customers to give a decent return; you’ll need to slide underneath the car and patch up holes on catalytic converters using duct tape. In time, you’ll be able to upgrade your garage with a hydraulic lift. This will allow you to replace a car’s suspension system and brake discs. Eventually, you’ll have upgraded your garage to the point where you can start replacing engines and the clutch disc of the assembly. After you achieve this, the sky’s the limit as you’ll be able to restore any car to a pristine state and grant it its highest resale value.
The act of progressing felt like a mad dash to get to the highest upgrade tier. It wasn’t like other games where progression is gradual and you work towards something step by step. Here, the goal is in front of you, dangling like a carrot waiting for you to lunge forward. And that’s mostly the game’s fault for skipping a few steps and allowing me access to wrecks. You see, ever since I brought a wreck back to the dealership, it has become my hope to become a business that fully restores wrecks. The problem is that you don’t get access to all the tools needed until you progress deep into the game. What I’m trying to say is that instead of enjoying the ride like I normally would in a simulator, I was dashing to the finish line at breakneck speed.
I noticed early on that NPCs and I have a preferred price we want to reach. This is common in real life, where you try to get the most out of what you are selling. If you give a number that’s too far out of their range, they completely close down, and there is no longer any room to negotiate. This guessing minigame is one of the best parts of the game, I reckon. I liked it so much that before I started negotiations, I would perform a visual inspection and then bring out my car scanner to have a clearer picture of the car’s estimated worth. I’d like to think that my due diligence managed to save me from a lot of unnecessary spending.
In the end, I mostly saw buying cars from people as a means to my ultimate goal of becoming a restoration shop. For one, the idea of restoration for me is more appealing than quick sales. Second, the only other gameplay alternative would be fast flips and selling wrecks at the junkyard. I did not find the latter to be fun long-term.
Things become all the more interesting when you unlock the ability to hire employees. The employees you hire will work in any of the workstations you assign them to. There are four NPCs that you can hire in the current version of the game. Each of them has their own stats, but really, they don’t matter too much. Some may be able to get the job done faster in theory, but in my experience, the worker with the lowest stats can still do the job in under three minutes. I suppose it only matters if you decide to turn your operation into an assembly line of parts and stations. Even when you don’t have the most efficient of set-ups, having two or so employees around can mean the difference between restoring three cars a day or painstakingly restoring ONE.
With that being said, this isn’t the kind of game where you can just do nothing and let the employees do all the work. You still need to move the cars yourself to the workstations, and you also need to take pictures. You are the only one who can set the prices and the one to post the advertisement online. All these little things make for an engaging time. Lastly, you are the only one who can stop rival dealerships from going in and ruining your cars. This one especially stings after seeing them dump trash all over my favorite rides.
The most disappointing aspect of the game is the endgame. This is cleared after buying the ownership rights of the dealership from Little Sam. Honestly, I was expecting a wider range of activities and possibly more cars to find on the map. But in reality, the game just goes on as normal. The only difference is that I don’t have to pay Little Sam’s cut every day. Looking back, I would have gladly paid him royalties for a while longer instead of spending thousands of dollars on nothing but a ‘thank you’ message. What a rip-off. On the bright side, it took me around 30 hours of speed running a business to get to that point. My advice: enjoy the ride and don’t rush buying a car dealership.
If there’s ever a reason to seriously consider adding this game to your library, it is for the simple reason that the game receives frequent updates. Just last week, as of the writing of this review, physics was introduced to small objects on the side of the road. Meaning, you can knock boxes and trash into the air like a proper sim game. The developers are still making changes to the game on top of introducing new car models. Last month, they added a new personal gas station inside the car dealership. I still don’t know what it’s supposed to do other than save you a bit of time refueling at the local gas station. Regardless, it is a welcome change. Personally, I’d like to see higher-value parts in a future update so we can bring the prices up even further.
The game looks good for a simulation game; that much is certain. Unfortunately, the game is unoptimized at best in its current state. Some parts look great, while others look like you’re looking at them through a voxel filter. This is a full release game, by the way, there is no excuse. As for the audio, your only options for background music are a car’s non-copyright radio stations or hanging out with the party-goers in the bar. Other than that, you can listen to portable radios brought by hikers on the edge of the lake.
Car Dealer Simulator starts strong but struggles to offer anything substantial in the current state of its endgame. The game ultimately appeals to deal-savvy players who love to buy low and sell high. On the flip side, it will be most disappointing to technical players who prefer a lot of realism in their engine breakdowns. In a field where car simulators are pretty much figured out at this point, more is expected, especially if you are willing to skip a few steps in the car flipping process. But I must admit that the game has a solid gameplay loop and merely needs a few additions to truly stand out from the crowd.
Car Dealer Simulator (PC)
Car Dealer Simulator starts strong but struggles to offer anything substantial in the current state of its endgame.
The Good
- Starts strong
- Solid sim mechanics
- Has potential
The Bad
- Disappointing endgame
- Unoptimized graphics
- Still missing something
