Car

Cars are objects introduced in the The Sims 2: Nightlife expansion pack and The Sims 3 to serve as alternative transport to the taxi and the carpool. A Sim who owns a car can drive to work instead of taking the carpool and 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. Although expensive additions to ones lot next to the improved genie lamp they are probably one of the most fantastic additions to the game as a whole. They add a certain amount of freedom to the game and realism aswell. They are found in the miscellaneous section of the Buy Mode catalogue. There are five models in Nightlife plus one that can be restored from Junk car in FreeTime, varying in price and specification, and each one comes in several colors. Strangely the carpool event show several vehicles (other than service-themed cars like the police car or fire truck) that never made to the buy mode.

They can only be driven by Sims teenage or older. Children can be driven to school by a teenager or their parents, and teenagers, if there is another teen on the lot, can carpool to school together. All cars can also have an alarm installed in them which will go off when ever a burglar is near even if the car happens to be inside a garage.

A car must be placed on a driveway or driveway extension for Sims to be able to use it. In The Sims 2 the driveway is very large (taking all tiles that a Sim need to enter the car) and must be connected to the street. In The Sims 3 the driveway is small and can be placed anywhere in the lot.

In the Law Enforcement Career Track you will acquire a free police cruiser at Level 5.

The five different models in The Sims 2 are:

Custom Content
Early The Sims fan made content allowed the player to have a car. Normally the same used by carpool that would never be accessible. Although they would have no use other than a large environment object.

In April 2007 a driveway and garage set was 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: 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.


 * The Fiat Punto - Formerly available at http://thesims2.co.uk
 * Modthesims2 has an extensive range of actual cars, Like a Honda Fit and Mazda3 and a limousine.

The Sims 3
Cars play a much important role in The Sims 3, as they are used to travel around places (otherwise the player can use a Taxi, walk/jog, or Bike). The sims however will not autonomously drive to work, as the carpool will still arrive for them, even if there is a vehicle assigned to the sim. The game comes with 11 cars with cost range from §950 to §105,000, or as a bonus when the sim reaches level 5 in the Law Enforcement career, since the sim receives a Police Cruiser.

Also, similar to bikes, the car will go inside the sim's inventory, leading to believe that the car will mostly be transformed in a small object, deflating, maybe being made out of rubber and filled with air. The motor is mostly a small piece of plastic, and when the sims put the car into their inventory, its imediatelly turned to a small dot. Strangely enough, the cars, while inside the inventory, are smaller than an apple, onion, or other small objects. Another drawback is that a fridge isn't fitted to the inventory, while a car is. How can such thing be explained is still unknown.

If your sim is a kleptomaniac and they steal a car, then the car's description will still say that it belongs to the sim that you stole it from, but you can still drive and/or use it.