- Dec 25, 2017
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The Cheapest cars in Los Santos
A San Andreas News article
Author: Luke Cavazzer
Tags:Cars, Hobby, Economy Preface
In Los Santos, having a car is something necessary in order to move by yourself, without having routes defined by public means of transport such as the subway station. Plus, they are cheaper than a taxi, when used frequently.
Also, you might prefer to buy a car instead of renting it, if you are in search of a car which is all yours, and cheaper in the long run.
In Los Santos, indeed, a lot of people use cars. From Vincent's to Huntley's to Slamvan's and so on. Else, just do a trip up to temple in the late evening to see some exotic Comet's, Turismo's, and Infernus'.
Else, you can go to the Beach and you can see some low-riders that do 1 meter jumps.
But all the cars stated above are luxury, sports, and expensive low-riders. What if you are looking for a really budget car?
The cars
The "Junk Dealership" is the place you are mainly looking for. Here, they sell you used and very old cars; with an exception: they all work perfectly and they have less than 50'000km.
So we bought 3 of the cheapest cars.
1) Sadler, 1976, 1'000$
This pickup has got 17 years, 49'000km, and 3 owners.
This is by far the cheapest motorized vehicle in Los Santos, equipped with a 3600cc Diesel engine which delivers 112hp. Not bad, also because the power is transferred to all of the 4 wheels. So it's the cheapest 4WD car, too!
Up: Front quarter of the vehicle Down: Rear quarter view of the vehicle.
Speaking of performance, this pickup can do a 0-100 in about 12.1", because of its relatively small weight (1215kg) and the pretty performant engine. You can do a quarter of mile in about 20.0", with an exit speed of about 135km/h. The top speed is pretty high: 162km/h.Inside the cabin, you will find however a very cheap vehicle: No radio, no electric windows; just the heat, 2 decent but used seats, a steering wheel, a gearstick, and not much more.
That was the first price. Let's see what the dealership has for "just" 600 more bucks.
2) Oceanic, 1965, 1'600$
This car is a classic and heavy 4 door car, like the 50's and 60's Cadillac's which are long 6 meters and are equipped with an engine that sometimes, it's bigger than a truck engine.
This is instead a "cheaper" version than the cars stated above, but it isn't a bad quality car.
It has got 2 couches which can quietly accomodate 4 people in total, and after almost 30 years, it's still comfortable.
The engine is a 5200cc petrol engine which delivers a whopping 212hp at 4000RPM. It's an important engine also today, but the rivals such as the Savanna or the Blade, have got a 8.2Liters 350hp engine.
Up: Front Quarter view Down: Rear Quarter view
The performance of this car, despite the engine, is quite disappointing. The 0-100 is about 13" and the top speed is 151km/h. The weight of 1850kg doesn't actually help. However you can keep the car at about 130km/h for an eternity, you can rely on the big engine.Inside the car, unlike the Sadler, you will find some luxury details, such as wooden dashboard, which actually it's not rotten but yet shiny and new; and some optionals that some cars today don't have. A couple of examples are 5 gear speedbox, headrests, reclining seats and an AM/FM stereo system. Automatic level control was available. So the Oceanic is, shortly, a 60's important luxury car.
Which is better?
Choosing which car is better, isn't obvious. The Sadler has got things that the Oceanic doesn't have, and viceversa. The common features are the big car trunk, and a ridiculous price, compared to other used cars.
Important feature of the Sadler is the 4 wheel drive, which the Oceanic doesn't have; on the other hand the Oceanic is a 4 door car. A defect of a car compensates with a positive trait. So let's pass to the tests, to see how the cars behave.
1) Classic Drag Race
A pretty barbaric but funny way to determine which car is better, is usually doing a drag race.
The rules are simple, just accelerate in a straight line, against 1 or more opponent.
The cars, heating the tires
The Oceanic had a great start, however the 4WD of the Sadler helped during the lasr part of the race, since the Oceanic lost the control at the end of the race, while the Sadler has been completely stable.
The cars at the end of the race. The exit speed of both cars was 133km/h
2) Chiliad Race
It's still a race, but this doesn't mean "just accelerate", this is a blend of steep straights, hairpin bends, and jumps. Here the acceleration doesn't count as much.
By considering that you already know what's the Chiliad Race,
Part of the leaderboard with the Sadler, 59th, and the Oceanic, 82nd
Here, the 4WD of the Sadler has been such a big help for the Pickup. But the 5800cc of the 60's car has also been useful for a fast acceleration.3) "Benchmarking"
This test has been created for the Vincent 2.0D; but it works for every vehicle powerful enough to smash some benches and pic-nic tables. Note that with a motorcycle you can fly off the pier very easily.
The Sadler smashing a pic-nic stand
The Oceanic smashing a pic-nic stand
The results were standard. Not impressing because they had severe hood damage. Not disappointing because they still were fully functional. Certainly, however, a worse result comparing to the Vincent.So, which is better?
It's not an easy question. As already stated above, they differ in a lot of things. Briefly:
Sadler
- 2 Doors
- Big truck bed
- Diesel engine
- 4WD
- Just 1'000$
- Good looking, you can choose 2 bodywork colors (up to 65536 colors!)
- 4 Doors
- Fast acceleration but mediocre top speed
- Many accessories
- A step before the big 60's luxury cars
- 1'600$
It comes out that they pretty much the same, more precisely the Oceanic is 0.5 points better.
I would recommend to buy an Oceanic. 2 more seats are always useful and you won't go around with a pickup with 2 barrels of gas in the trunk bed. Plus, the RWD with 212hp is good at climbing as the 112hp 4WD.
~Luke Cavazzer
But did you notice that the article says "3 cars?"
Well, the 3rd one is so special, that must be done apart.
The one and only Tampa
The Tampa is a car that, in Los Santos, is known by everyone. It's the most sold vehicle in Los Santos!
Note that this car hasn't been bought at the Junk Dealership, but by a private dealer, for an even lower price.
Tampa, 1978, 1'250$
The car has been sold in this continent with an engine designed for an imminent petrol crisis, but meant to be a muscle car engine. The result was a 2.5 Petrol engine, which can deliver 164hp at 4100RPM.
With this particular engine, however, a problem arrived. There were lmany cars in the 1976-1982 (years of production of the car) which had a medium engine like the 2.5; muscle cars or not.
The first rival was the Clover, but its 2.6 engine was extremely unreliable and it consumed lots of fuel.
There has been the Sabre, 2.5 210hp engine, which has been reliable, but it wasn't a really popular engine. People chose more often the 410hp 5.5 V8.
The Stallion 2.5, pretty good engine with 199hp, but the Stallion was an another level. People chose the more powerful 5.6 V8 with 390hp.
Front and Rear quarter
The interiors are pretty good. Some used fake leather seats, some new carpets, and a modified stick shift.
This model is pretty special, too. The dashboard includes an econometer, but I don't know how accurate it is. Perhaps it's not even working.
Let's say that the owner of the car modified everything. I just noticed that the gears are not placed in the original configuration, and the owner also did a new semi-automatic clutch. Noteworthy.
It includes however an automatic climax (not original), some bass boosted speakers (not original), and a NOS regulator (obviously not original). Nevertheless, it's pretty comfortable.
And now, let's pass to the tests!
Since the Tampa, unlike the Sadler, doesn't have a rival to compare, the tests that have been done to the Vincent, have been done to the Tampa as well.
So the first test has been the "Launch Control". We took the Tampa to take a ramp at the airport to see how the body and the suspensions handled the launch.
The launch speed has been 145km/h.
Up: The car in mid-air Down: The car land
The suspensions have been responsive, and the body reacted well. The unique problem was the low roof, which caused the head to hit it.The next test is the "Benchmark", as known as "Smash everything you can find on your path"
The Tampa destroying a pic-nic stand
Now, there should be the Chiliad Race, but since the winner last year was a tampa( 6.0 AWD), the Tampa this year couldn't partecipate. So we took the best performing model 2.5 that partecipated two years ago. It has ended the race in 17th position, in 12'40"07. Top speed: 132km/h.
Also, if you want to know what does it take for a 400m (1/4 mi) : ~14.4"
Now, proceeding with an evaluation,
Engine: I can't pretend much on a muscle car that can do 16.5km/l on average (about 39 mpg for the american friends). 7/10
Racing performance: Average, the torque here can be felt very much 6.5/10
Durability: It's not very durable, but the replace parts are still very cheap 5.5/10
Look: I can't express a evaluation since almost everything inside the car wasn't original. N/A
Quality/price: It's pretty obvious. 10/10
So we got a total of: 29/40 ~7.25/10
Personal Comment:
Since I own the car, although I like luxury cars like the Vincent, some cheap fun never hurts. Take this car if you can afford a 2nd car; a cheap but worthy 2nd car.
~Luke Cavazzer
Credits
Special thanks to the owner of the Junk Dealership (441 High Jack ave, if you want to buy a car there)
Special thanks also to the Media Producer Commander, Hlias Papas, for most of the photos.
Note: if you are viewing the online version of the article, you can click on the staff members to see a webpage dedicated to that actor.
