Why Grand Theft Auto’s Car Customization Is Basically Pointless

Although car customization in Grand Theft Auto seems like one of the franchise’s coolest features, it’s ultimately pointless given how quickly players go through vehicles. With only a few opportunities to retrieve modified cars once they’re lost or destroyed, Grand Theft Auto’s car customization makes for an inefficient investment of both a player’s time and their money.

It’s not uncommon for GTA players to discover their cars disappearing from their garages and safehouses. This isn’t just a glitch, but rather the result of a poor design choice. Grand Theft Auto gives players little opportunity to retrieve modified vehicles which disappear in this way, despite the small fortune many players spend on customizing their rides. When players save their cars, they expect that the cars will do just that – stay saved. So, it’s a rude wake-up call to find their cars gone with seemingly no reason.

Grand Theft Auto 5’s single-player and online modes both provide some opportunity to retrieve lost or destroyed cars, but there’s never a guarantee that a customized car will stay intact for long. Therefore, it doesn’t make sense to spend hard-earned GTA money on modifying a vehicle that players will only crash and destroy sooner rather than later. This renders the game’s car customizations basically pointless, or at least, inefficient and frustrating.

Is It Possible To Retrieve Destroyed Cars In GTA?

There are some instances in which players can retrieve a saved car in Grand Theft Auto 5. It’s a lot easier to do in GTA Online than the single-player mode, though. In single-player, if the player fails to return their car to their garage or safe house before they start a mission requiring a different vehicle, destroy the car, die, or simply exit the game, the car may not appear in their garage the next time they reload. However, if the player abandoned or lost their modified car, they can retrieve it at the Impound Lot, indicated by a white car on the map, and it will cost them $250 in-game. This option is not available for cars that were destroyed. Any vehicles that were totally obliterated cannot be retrieved in single-story, meaning all the money spent on customizing the ride is down the drain, too. Alternatively, to avoid losing a custom car, players can duplicate their saved file and then reload the duplicated saved file if they lose their vehicle while playing in the main file.

The process to retrieve a saved car is a bit different in GTA: Online. Players should always buy a tracker and insurance for their vehicles in GTA Online, so that if their custom car becomes destroyed they can simply pay the insurance money to retrieve it. If another player destroys it, then they pay the insurance fee. If players lose their car in Grand Theft Auto Online, they can locate it through the map or call a mechanic, but if a player is caught by the police while driving their customized car, they must then go to the impound lot and either steal it back or pay a fee to get it back.

Although some cars can be retrieved in Grand Theft Auto 5, the fact that players go through cars so quickly (or have to jump through so many hoops to get their cars back) leaves the car customization feature feeling pointless and inefficient.

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