Car

Cars are objects introduced in the The Sims 2: Nightlife expansion pack and are available in The Sims 3 and The Sims 4 to serve as alternatives to the taxi and the carpool. A Sim who has a car can drive to work instead of taking the carpool and can even use it to go to work late. Teens can drive to school, and children can be driven to school, and can go to school late.

In The Sims 2, if a player clicks on a car and selects a Sim as its owner, the carpool will not come for that Sim. Instead, he or she will autonomously head for the car. If the Sim is a teen, he or she will autonomously drive to school, though the school bus will still come. Selecting one Sim as the owner will not affect other family members' ability to use the car.

Sims with cars can drive to community lots whenever they like, or they can just take a spin around the neighborhood to relax. Sims can even WooHoo in cars, complete with rocking motion and fogged-up windows to hide the view from the player.

In The Sims 2, cars are found in the miscellaneous section of the Buy mode catalog. In The Sims 3, they are found in the vehicles section.

Cars can only be driven by teenage Sims or older. All cars have the option to have an alarm installed. A car alarm costs §250 and takes an hour in Sim time to be installed. An armed car alarm will go off whenever a burglar is near, even if the car happens to be inside a garage.

In early neighborhood pictures before The Sims 2 was released, some houses had driveway and garage door. That means that ownable cars are maybe meant to be shipped with the base game.

A car must be placed on a driveway or driveway extension for Sims to be able to use it. In The Sims 2 a driveway has a 5x8 section that a car can be placed on, a 5x2 section that connects it to the street, and a 12x3 section which is at right angles to rest of the driveway. That section is placed over the street, and is used when cars back out of, or pull into, the driveway. Except for using the driveway, a car enters and leaves the lot in the same way as the carpool or taxi. Some pre-made residential lots, as made, do not have room for a driveway. Normally, a driveway cannot be placed unless there is room for the entire street section, however, later expansions allow the player to override this by using the moveobjects on cheat. Since a driveway placed in this manner will not have room to show a car backing out into the street, or pulling into the driveway, a car placed on it will fade out when Sims drive off, and fade in when they return. In The Sims 3, the driveway is small and can be placed anywhere on the lot.

Most of the families in The Sims 3 and its expansion packs already own cars which are either on their lot or in their inventories.

The Sims 2 models


There are five models in Nightlife, of varying price and specifications, and each one comes in several colors. They are drivable versions of carpool or service vehicles from the base game. In addition, FreeTime adds a junk car that can be restored.

Sims get a boost to energy, comfort, and fun from driving or riding in a car. Generally, more expensive cars give a greater boost, but this does not always hold for custom-content cars.

Regardless of how many seats a particular model of car would have in real life, a car in The Sims 2 can hold any number of Sims. For example, a family of eight can ride in a Hunka, even though it looks like a two-seat sports car.

The player can see the cars from Nightlife in the neighborhood view. Taxis, garbage trucks, grey armored vans, and police cars can also be seen. Rarely, a blue and yellow wide-bodied car can be seen as well.

Other non-drivable vehicles
Some other cars are also in the game, but were not made buyable or drivable. Some may be available as custom content.
 * Limo: A stretch limousine resembling a Lincoln Town Car (1998-2003) that serves as carpool for some jobs. It also appears when a teen goes out or sneaks out with someone, or when a college student is being taken to the secret society.
 * Town Car: A sedan that resembles an older Lincoln Town Car (1990-1997) with a soft top. It's a carpool for several jobs, and in some career tracks, such as Education, is even the carpool for the top-level job.
 * Small Sports Car: It's a carpool car that appears in either bright red or bright blue, and is very small. It resembles a Maserati Coupe (2002-2007). The red car and the blue car are actually two separate cars that are almost identical, but this is only apparent if they are examined very closely.
 * Fire Truck. An average sized fire truck.
 * Ambulance. Paramedic carpool vehicle, and sometimes seen on television.
 * Large Truck: A delivery truck used by the grocery store, the Repo-man, and the exterminator. The grocery truck is blue with a yellow streak on the sides and rear. On close inspection, it can be seen that the streak is formed by a winged PlumbBob. The Repo-man's truck has sad faces on it, and has no rear doors. The exterminator's truck is yellow, has a picture of a bug and a "No" symbol on the sides, and an oversized model of a dead bug on the roof.
 * Bus: Kids go to school in a yellow school bus, and some jobs in the Athletic career track use a team bus as the carpool. The sports team bus is white with a red stripe, while the school bus is yellow with a black stripe, but they are otherwise identical.
 * UFO: Technically, it's a car. The design is available as custom content. It has yet to be turned into something more fitting, such as a helicopter.
 * HMV: A military truck, used as the carpool for many jobs in the Military career track.

Based on "Smoogo"

 * Delivery car.

Based on "Smord"

 * Gardener's Truck
 * Repairman's Truck

Based on "Heavola"

 * Taxi
 * Maid's Van
 * Social Worker's Van
 * Nanny's Van

Based on "Yomoshoto"

 * Police Car

Downloadable cars
In April 2007, a driveway and garage set was made available for download at TheSims2.com allowing players with only the base game to have cars. Over the next year they released 7 download-able cars by Ford: Ford Mustang GT, Ford Focus, Ford Fusion, Ford Edge, Ford Escape, and Ford Escape Hybrid as well as HotRod Hauler Chop Socky Special and Montgomery Hawker.

==use. It is available as a decoration in The Sims 3: Ambitions. Another junker may be found under one of the bridges leading to the main island. In Twinbrook, there the same car on the neighborhood, one in a mudslide.==

In Appaloosa Plains which come with Sims 3: Pets, Next to a house, there is a brown, rusted Heartbreak Hotrod.
 * Junked Heartbreak Hotrod

At the Bayless Memorial Junkyard in Twibroe been ripped off, and the car has grungy textures.
 * Scrap Big Lemon

Fast Lane Stuff Pack
In June 2010, EA announced, a new stuff pack for The Sims 3, Fast Lane Stuff, that would be centered around cars. It includes 12 new cars, and new fashion and decor styles that center around them. Pictures have gone out showing a Formula 1 ride, a Lamborghini-like sports car, and several classic models from the 50s.

When the game was released in Fall 2010, new cars included a Formula 1/IndyCar Racecar, a retro 1950s IndyCar, many Hot Rods, and two Motorbikes that are similar to the ones raced in MotoGP.

The Sims 4


Cars are confirmed to be making an appearance in The Sims 4. Very little is known about the function of cars. It is unknown if they will be spawn-to-enter like in The Sims 3, or if there will be animations to enter them. In addition, it is not officially confirmed that Sims will even be able to drive cars in the new series.

Custom Content
Early fan-made content for The Sims allowed Sims to have a car. Normally, this would be one from the carpool that would not otherwise be accessible, and would have no use other than as a decorative object that might affect Room score.

In April 2007, a driveway and garage set was made available for download at TheSims2.com, allowing players with only the base game to have cars. Over the next year they released 7 downloadable cars by Ford: the Ford Mustang GT, the Ford Focus, the Ford Fusion, the Ford Edge, the Ford Escape, and the Ford Escape Hybrid as well as HotRod Hauler Chop Socky Special. This set, and these cars, are available in the Exchange->Objects section of TheSims2.com.

Over the years, many custom-content vehicles have been made for The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. The list below is only a small sample of what is available.


 * The Fiat Punto - Formerly available at http://thesims2.co.uk, now available from the Sims2 Graveyard.
 * A recolorable version is available at ModTheSims.
 * ModTheSims has an extensive range of actual cars, such as a Honda Fit and the Mazda Mazda3; a limousine; and drivable versions of the town car and both the blue and red versions of the small sports car from the carpool.
 * MTS also has ownable versions of most non-ownable cars for The Sims 3.