Car expense/Car value. Someone please help.

[CMDR.FREEZER]

Allright, so am lvl 12 right now. at lvl 9 i bought this fancy looking 2 seated car from a barn for 27.856 dollars that i thought i'd try repair/restore.
Of course at lvl 9-12 it aint much i can restore, so resturation became replacement instead.
Spend a total of 18.453 dollars on the entier underside + new engine. and a total of 15.385 on body + interior. ( i have written it down, as i couldnt find any way in-game to keep track of what i've spent on the car)

27.856 + 18.453 + 15.385 = thats a total of 61.694 dollars.

Under car status, it says its value is 61.850 dollars,
at which would give me a 156 dollar profit <(O_O)>

I seriously have to be missing something, or could i have a buggy/corrupted game or something ?

[Campari]

sell all parts in your inventory also this add extra profit to you. If you want to make good profit you must restore high priced cars and upgrate your repair skills by leveling up this would help you to earn much.You can use my guide for the prices.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1146473030

[CMDR.FREEZER]

Originally posted by Campari:

sell all parts in your inventory also this add extra profit to you. If you want to make good profit you must restore high priced cars and upgrate your repair skills by leveling up this would help you to earn much.You can use my guide for the prices.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/645630/guides/

I probably have to reveiw how i spend my points then. cause as i said, it aint much i can repair at my lvl. In fact, like 90% of the time i go to the repair table it says something like "No items to work on"
And yeah, i have actually not taken into account the bad parts i've sold, but they dont sell for much anyway do they ?

[katzenjogi]

You don't get much profit out of the car, because you have not garage level 3 which offers you the wielder (for body/frame repair) and the interior detailing kit, which offers you the possibility to polish the interior of you car like dashboard and so on.

So without being level 30 you won't get any bargain out of restauring cars, just because you cannot get them at 100% repaired.

[dogwalker1]

Originally posted by katzenjogi:

You don't get much profit out of the car, because you have not garage level 3 which offers you the wielder (for body/frame repair) and the interior detailing kit, which offers you the possibility to polish the interior of you car like dashboard and so on.

So without being level 30 you won't get any bargain out of restauring cars, just because you cannot get them at 100% repaired.

Yup, with those extra two steps (welder and interrior detailing - both of which unfortunately involve nothing more than a single mouse click) your car value will go up by mountains. By then you'll also be able to repair repairable parts, which will add to your profit even further. (To the point, I find, where making lots of money is too easy.)

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by katzenjogi:

So without being level 30 you won't get any bargain out of restauring cars, just because you cannot get them at 100% repaired.

Though.... you could be more picky with the buy and be after a pretty bad condition parts on the car, BUT get a car which has a very decent % in the last 2 stats (interior and frame)
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Should read
Now OP, you also have to know that there are 2 important factors in the car value.

You may have now realized that all cars share a lot of parts, so while your cost with parts will be somewhat pretty similar for many cars, there are cars models that sells for way more money than others. So yeah it's a learning curve early on. So before buying a car in a barn, you should know it's potential resell value.

And other VERY important factor is the mileage INCREMENTS (I emphasis that) because a 99'900km car or a 100'100km car will definitely not be able to sell at a close by price. It's not linear... so know where these increments take place.

Those 2 things are very nicely detailed in the very amazing guide Campari listed here.
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TL:DNR
Read ONLY if interested in getting more tips

So don't listen too much into those saying it's not worth it early on, it's not worth it if you are not picky. If you don't mind wasting a few barn maps, it can be a very rewarding feeling to make money out of a barn find early on, and also a thrill you'll never have later game to discover if it was worth it or not.
Ofc I say that without intention of offensing anyone, it's just the "meta" of playing this game <Don't do this or that before reaching lvlXYZ> and I slightly disagree with that. It takes more patience and more knowledge, but if you are willing to learn, you have all the infos out there to succeed not folowing that usual path.

I would also add a few points...
if you understand that repairing an engine block early on is risky and can be costly because you don't have high level repairs perks, NEVER sell that 15% or higher engine block... You can restore it to 100% later on... so also learn what IS actually repairable and what's not... good luck with that, due to some amazing inconsistencies...

Also, on those barn finds... keep all those orange parts... you will have many jobs which may require parts from 35% or higher.... so use them for repair orders.,.. you are paied the same price, new parts or not, as long as it reaches minimum request from order.
Many overlook that early game, that helps you recoup a lot from those barn and auction cars you buy and fully restore.
Btw, when you upgrade your garage and have access of the warehouse, make use of it, and find a way to make a smart storage out of it. I keep parts from 15% and higher (all what's considered not broken), but may be wiser to keep only from 35% and higher and use all of those again on repair instead of insta-shop for new parts. It brings a bit of variety to the game.

And final note, to help you know what's repairable, again DIG into that Campari's guide... Due to his amazing job, all parts in blue are repairable... so check that too...

In the end, you'll know by heart what's repairable and what's not when you are in the junkyard...

Hope it helps and have a nice gaming

[leucome]

Before level 30 it's better to just fix the engine and add all the missing parts. And by fix I mean just repair the red part to be able to start the engine. It's not required to fix the brakes and suspension.

The first important value increase come from having no missing parts and the second come from a working engine.

I'm not 100% sure about the math but i've done it many time before level 30 and I always made few thousands in profits. Even with car from the junkyard and car with low value.


Also part value increase when repaired. If you repair a 20% once and get 60% just keep it .. Trying to make it 100% can destroy the part. from 20 to 60 it's a good value increase. Anyway it's impossible to get the bonus from having all at 100% until level 30 so there is no need for 100% parts. Before level 30.

[leucome]

Just to be sure I started a new game with cms2018stage2 . It start at level 14.

I applied all the repair skill up to level 12 and the 5% store discount. I directly went to the scrapyard to get a 13k$ car and fixed the engine transmission and added the missing parts... hood fender window ect... also including the licence plate.

I did nothing to the suspension brake or wheels . I just fixed the minimum to make it run. But in that case I had to build a new engine from scratch. I was not able to recover any parts from the old one.

I Made 22000$ of profits. It was easy to calculate since I done nothing else in that game.

I'm going to try one from a barn.

[leucome]

Look like it's harder to turn a profit from barn find at level 12. There is not so much we can improve easily.

I started with a $ 28 000 car ... After fixing the engine and adding missing part the value had increased enough to make 7 000$ of profit. It's a way less than for the same amount of work when compared to a car from the junkyard.

So by fixing the remaining wheel and suspension and brakes the value increased enough to make 14 000$... Still less than what I made from repairing a junk car.

So it's possible to make profit from barn find at level 12 but it's easier to make money by fixing car from the junkyard.

[BonPadre]

Originally posted by leucome:

Look like it's harder to turn a profit from barn find at level 12. There is not so much we can improve easily.

I started with a $ 28 000 car ... After fixing the engine and adding missing part the value had increased enough to make 7 000$ of profit. It's a way less than for the same amount of work when compared to a car from the junkyard.

So by fixing the remaining wheel and suspension and brakes the value increased enough to make 14 000$... Still less than what I made from repairing a junk car.

So it's possible to make profit from barn find at level 12 but it's easier to make money by fixing car from the junkyard.

Indeed, I always felt this way. Still, again in barns you can find some cars that don't have so much structural rust, and a decent interior, so with my statement about mileage importance, if you are picky in barns, still doable.

On the long run though, again as I stated, if you FULLY restore a barn find, do not dismiss the incomes you can have using that 37% muffler on a repair job that ask for a 36% minimum part.
Again, it makes sense if you minmax all the parts usage, it's not only the car itself, it's what you make out of the used parts. Air filter, breaks, shock absorbers, etc... they have a far greater value placed on repairs than instantly sold once restoration finished.

I think many completely overlook that part in the whole picture.
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EDIT : Btw leucome, nice you did that experiment. really appreciate peeps doing things like that to try to break that meta of the game (aka do repair jobs until you hit lvl30). doing the experiment you do show up one thing, incomes are possible with barns find early on.

Now is that all worth the effort for earning "that" little, that's a whole different question. It's far more a gameplay style and choice, but still a choice.