Car Mechanic Sim 2018 Tips

[Hedwig and the Angry Inch]

This is a great game. There's lots of information around there about what to do, and what not to do. Some say don't even buy a car until level 30-35. I would say given your personal play style of what you want to get out of the game, this could be bad advice and cause you to quit early. Here's a list of tips that would be good for any play style that could help you make money and level up as fast as possible while having as much fun as possible.

1) Focus on the core skills that have the most impact. Yes, you'll have enough points to level everything up. But at first, you want to focus on the skills that will make you bigger, stronger, and faster. Don' waste points on the skills that you'll use once in a while.

Good skills to get leveled ASAP: Wrench speed, Repair, Tablet, Tools, Store discounts, and Garage updates.

Bad skills to dump points into right away: Walking speed, Strong Arm, Eagle Eye-related skills, Customer discounts.

The bad skills aren't bad, they just don’t have a large impact. For Walking Speed, you don't really spend a lot of time walking in the game. And if you're walking, it's not far. Strong Arm has the ability to remove and install parts faster, but I didn't notice much difference. For Eagle-Eye, how often are you spending gobs of time visually inspecting stuff when rust (which is the game's indicated of a bad part) is clearly visible? True, there are times to go into inspection mode, but it’s just not that time consuming to have parts inspect “faster”. Customer discounts may sound good at first, but fact is you'll be doing lots, and lots, and lots, of jobs. You'll be rich without this.

2) Stick to exhaust jobs if you need XP. Exhaust jobs take anywhere from 20-90 seconds. You'll get at least 100 XP each time.

3) Stick to gearbox jobs if you need money. Gearbox jobs take a couple minutes, allow you to buy everything in advance (stock up on clutch pressure plates, clutch bearings, flywheel, and clutch plates). You'll get anywhere from $1,000-9,000 just on gearbox jobs! If you have a choice, chose a car that is real-wheel drive. Front-wheel drive cars require more removal of parts, including the front wheels for a successful repair. For some reason, I always tend to make more money with RWD cars (and they’re twice as fast to complete).

4) Expect and love the grind. No matter how you cut it, Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 takes time. It should take you around 40 hours to level to level 30. Complete story missions every now and then to help break up the grind. Don’t be a hurry. Grab a car from a barn and start restoring it if you’re getting bored.

5) The game blows it load at level 35. As in, it reaches its pinnacle. So really, level 35 is what you’re aiming for to be able to do everything, not really level 50. The perks after level 35 are pretty useless and moot. For all intents and purposes, level 35 is the last level. That should help make your task not too daunting.

6) Level 30 is a great level that will give you that final push to level 35. Once you hit 30, you’ll be getting pretty tired of the grind. But have no fear, because now you can weld! Yes, you can weld at level 30, but you’re limited to welding only parts that cannot be removed (quarter panels, roofs, inner fenders, chassis, etc). There’s a battery re-charger that the game didn’t mention above that allows you to repair any battery, and an interior detailer kit (that I’m not sure really does much). Oh yea, and a paint booth. Painting a car does NOT remove rust, it just changes the color. The welder is the only item that removes rust.

7) Change the music to help the grind. I didn’t realize there was a little stereo near the work area for quite awhile, but use it to your advantage. Some of the stations suck, but it helps break up the monotony. The Classic Rock station is solid.

8) Don’t be afraid to reject jobs. In-fact, the game wants you to do it since there’s three achievements for it. Always use your compression gauge or the OCD scanner before starting any engine repair. No tool to my knowledge identifies timing chain components.

9) Barns are super fun and only cost $100 to get to. Always find and buy the crate ($200) from every barn you go to. Crates are easily worth $200. This is important because once you get to level 35, there's no point in really taking customer jobs anymore--that means crates are harder to come by. Use your money to buy the crates, not your time. Barn maps are the true treasure that are found in crates.

10) Don't use your barn maps until you've obtained all the DLCs that you want. This obviously increases your chance of finding the car you want, as opposed to using a metric ton of barn maps, and THEN downloading the DLCs. Get the DLCs first, or just hold on to your barn maps until the cars you want are loaded into the game.

11) Always replace bushings if you are replacing a parts that have bushings just replace them. It sucks being stuck with a bushing you didn’t replace (even if it wasn't worn) and you now have to spend time to find and disassemble the part just to get to that one bushing.

12) There are story missions in the game that requires you to replace parts that are not necessarily red or damaged. It’s annoying and it’s an inconsistency in the game. For an easy example, there was a job that had an engine with two timing belts. One was 12% (red), and the other was 54% (yellow @ 54% is just like all other parts that didn’t need replacing for that particular car). I tore the whole thing apart, replaced only the red timing belt, and put it all back together. Only to learn that I was expected to replace both belts (which is the right thing to do in real life). The problem is that in story mode, there’s no real consistency to it. I’ve seen this happen with spark plugs, push rods, bushings, suspension parts, valve rockers, belt rollers, etc. My advice is to constantly check the status screen as you are assembling to make sure you are assembling all that is being asked for.

13) Adding "Quality" parts does not raise the performance. It only raises the value. There is no point to add quality parts to a customer's job--it doesn't increase the value. Save the quality parts for your own car.

14) Repairing is truly a great skill. Avoid repairing until you've leveled it to 85% and above. Don't let the game confuse you and think "well, 75% is pretty darn good enough". How repairing works is dependent on the original condition of the item you're repairing. Many times, you'll need to repair the same item 3-4 times before it gets to 100%. If you're at 75%, and you need to click on the repair button 4 times to get to 100%...you get my point...it's dicy. 85% is when you can start to get comfortable with it. Items below 15% CANNOT be repaired. Sell them. Many "consumable" items (pistons, rings, brake pads, brake drums, rotors, bushings, bearings, push rods, cam gears, etc) cannot be repaired. You'll just have to learn which ones cannot be repaired and sell them immediately.

15) The game takes pride in showing you the "minimum" repair level of a said vehicle that rolls into your shop. It's supposed to be giving you an incentive to use used parts on a vehicle that let's say, rolls in at 50% minimum part condition. In reality, I found this rarely ever to be the case where I have a good used part to use on the vehicle, and still had to wind up buying new. And I'm a pretty big pack rat. YMMV.