Car

Cars are objects introduced in the The Sims 2: Nightlife expansion pack and The Sims 3 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. At least 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. Selecting one Sim as the owner will not affect other family members' ability to use the car. Teens can drive to school, and children can be driven to school.

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.

They are found in the miscellaneous section of the Buy Mode catalog. There are five models in Nightlife, of varying price and specifications, and each one comes in several colors. In addition, FreeTime adds a junk car that can be restored.

Four of the five Nightlife cars are drivable versions of carpool or service vehicles, but there are several carpool vehicles (other than service-themed cars like the police car or fire truck) that were not made buyable and drivable.

They can only be driven by Sims teenage or older. All cars can have an alarm installed. An armed car alarm will go off whenever 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 after a sim has driven it to another lot. It can be dragged and dropped into the inventory of other family members, or double clicked to allow your sim to drive to a new location.

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.