Car Dealer Simulator Review

Car Dealer Simulator is… well, it‘s in the title. Developed and published by Garage Monkeys, you’ll be put into the shoes of an amateur mechanic who’s about to break into the world of the used car market. You’ll be buying up barely functioning junkers, fixing them up, and selling them for a profit. Do you have what it takes to become the leader of the used car world, or at least the small town you live in?

I’ve been passively interested in cars since getting into Top Gear recently, so I wanted to check this one out and get my hands dirty with its repair mechanics. And… ugh, they used AI for images on their Steam store page. Welp, I already have a low opinion, but let’s see if the game itself is any good.

You play as a mechanic working under Little Sam (who ain’t the most honest man), and it’s up to you to turn a sad, trash-filled, possibly rat-infested dump into a respectable used car dealership. It’ll take a lot of work and money, but what’s more satisfying than becoming a millionaire through hard work? While there isn’t a ton of story here, I do like Little Sam enough to respect him. As for the overall presentation, while the graphics won’t wow you, it’s serviceable enough that I wasn’t too bothered by the frozen faces. Really, the main focus is the cars, and they can be really detailed and nice to look at. The fact that you can drive them makes it all the sweeter.

There is an open world to drive around in your various automobiles; a lot of it is locked off, but as you progress, you’ll gain access to more of the map and even unlock bigger shops. The world is fun to drive around, with decently realistic car physics and ramps to jump off of just for the heck of it. If I didn’t have to worry about bills or fuel, I’d like to go on a casual drive while listening to the radio (which does have some fairly solid licensed songs, although it can be turned off in the settings via Streamer Mode). That being said, there is surprisingly very little consequence for driving like an idiot. I thought running over people and crashing into stuff would at least cause something like some money being taken away or a hit to the condition of car parts, but there’s literally nothing that happens other than an amusing ragdoll. It’s weird but kind of funny. I mean, the goal here is to simulate car dealerships, not traffic laws.

But enough about that, let’s get into the gameplay. The used cars you’ll buy off of random strangers posting ads online will often be in less-than-great conditions; they’ll be dirty, rusty, barely able to drive, or all of the above, all at once. If you want to make a profit (if you manage to negotiate a lower price), you’ll need to take the time to wash it, get rid of the rust, and replace broken parts, maybe even polish the exterior to make it more eye-catching. Although I would’ve liked the parts to be colour-coded based on condition so I could check it at a glance rather than needing to hover my mouse over it, it’s quite satisfying fixing a car up, transforming a barely drivable hunk of metal to a near-factory new vehicle, as long as you have the time and money.

Barring that, you can totally chop up the car, take whatever can still be used, and sell the husk. Actually, when I did that, I realised that car parts are universal. You could take the parts of a hatchback and then slap it into a sports car, which I found weird, but it was easier to manage and led to fewer frustrations in the long run. If you can’t replace the part, just slap some tape over the holes to make your car sound better. It’s not a perfect solution, but it does work in a pinch. There are also some less-than-honest ways to make your cars more valuable, like using an odometer manipulator to turn down the miles. The less a customer knows, the better.

Now, repairing and refurbishing a car is fun and all, but doing all of that by yourself for every single vehicle is… tedious, and in my experience, it will take a long while. That’s why you can hire workers to take care of these tasks for you. Workers assigned to the car wash and body shop will do their jobs automatically, but workshop employees need to be told what to do; what parts do you want taken out or replaced. After that, all you need to do is wait out their timers. By the late game, your main job will be sourcing cars, getting them to the lot, and negotiating deals, which is far more fun than scrubbing rust.

It's not just fixing cars and balancing the books, though. The more you work and grow your reputation, the less happy your competitors may become, so at times, thugs will come to your lot to mess up your cars. As soon as you hear the guitar twang, you need to rush over and stop them. I found that this broke the flow of gameplay. I could be in the middle of repairs or paying bills, then all of a sudden, I have to quickly stop to deal with the threat. It made me a little paranoid at all times, hoping to God that I didn’t miss the sound cue or that I’m not too far away to stop them.

Overall, I found the gameplay relaxing with some stressful moments. Dealing with bills and fuel is a pain, but getting to work on vehicles of all types is a satisfying endeavour, even if it gets old after a couple of hours. I don’t want to rush through jobs, but with the amount of mouse movements I needed to do made it slightly painful. I just wanted to get it over with. You will be thankful once you upgrade to the second shop and unlock hiring employees.

Onto performance and… well, it’s not perfect. While Car Dealer Simulator was running at 60 FPS on Medium settings, it would sometimes stutter or outright freeze for a few minutes. I needed to force quit and restart the game 37 minutes into my playthrough. There was also quite a decent bit of pop-in when the game first loads, but it disappears soon enough. I did encounter a few glitches too, such as getting stuck in objects and my mouse being unable to move.

Car Dealer Simulator is quite a good time if you like the process of refurbishing automobiles, but it can be aggravating in the least fun ways. There will be customers ripping you off, thugs trying to ruin your day, and various glitches and performance issues. Still, if you stick it out, you’ll find a very satisfying simulator to take a nice Sunday drive in.