A simple guide on each vehicle’s pros and cons to help new players with choosing which one to drive in certain situations
Satsuma
Satsuma is the most important car in the game, the entire point of MSC is to turn it from a bare shell into a perfectly restored car, upgrade it to GT trim, turn it into a rally car, race car, or a barely working crapbox that is occasionally used for getting groceries, it’s up to you.
Pros of the Satsuma:
- Good top speed (160-200+km/h depending on the gear ratios)
- Good handling
- Good fuel economy
- A lot of customization options
- Reason for you to play this game
- You can sleep in it
Cons of the Satsuma:
- It breaks a lot if you don’t do build and maintain it properly
- Parts that you get at the start are in terrible condition
- Bad tuning can easily ruin its performance
- Requires more fluids than any other car in game
- Parts can fall off in crashes
- Damage gets saved between game loads so you can’t just crash into a wall and return to a mint car after saving and loading
- Pretty small boot space, especially if you include the warning triangle (required for inspection), spare wheel (not a necessary item but good to have), spanner set (you should keep it in the car at all times), and gasoline canister (not a necessity but good to have)
Neither pros nor cons:
- You need to build the whole thing yourself
- FWD drivetrain
Suggested way of usage:
It’s an excellent vehicle for daily driving and general everyday tasks, as well as racing and all other stupid sh$t that you might want to do, but doing any tasks involving transporting bigger objects is not an option.
Hayosiko
Hayosiko is a very useful vehicle in the mid to late game, you acquire it from your uncle once he loses his license for speeding, you can find it at an empty store next to the inspection center after that.
Pros of Hayosiko:
- A lot of cargo space
- Decent fuel economy
- Can’t break
- Soft suspension allows you to drive on dirt roads surprisingly fast
- It can easily fit the junkyard Sofa in the back, making a good improvised camper
- If you are stubborn enough it can be used to haul light wrecked cars to Fleetari
Cons of Hayosiko:
- Not available from the start
- Soft suspension causes it to violently shake at speeds exceeding 120km/h
- It has an 80km/h limit on the highway rather than 100 for most cars
- Very easy to flip over
- No tachometer
Suggested way of usage:
Hayosiko is a very versatile vehicle, it can be used for getting groceries, transporting items, transporting people, and all other basic tasks. In fact, it might be better for everyday use than the Satsuma.
Ruscko
Ruscko is a car that is one of the first vehicles you can get in the game, and Topless made sure that it’s only used at the start by making it progressively worse to a point where it’s almost unusable in the vanilla game. At the end of this section, I’ll list the mods I recommend getting to make it (somewhat) useable. Ruscko can be acquired by stealing it from a shed on the way from Dance Hall to the Town, or by winning the keys in a game of cards with the owner of this thing.
Pros of the Ruscko:
- A lot of cargo space
- Quite a lot of power on higher RPMs
- Easy to get at the start
- Can be started with a screwdriver
- Not bad fuel consumption
- Reasonably fast
- 4th gear serves as overdrive, allowing you to save fuel and prevent it from overheating
- You can sleep in the back
Cons of the Ruscko:
- It spawns with a wasp nest under the dashboard which requires you to push it into a lake and keep it submerged for a few seconds to get rid of the wasps
- If you haven’t won it yet, you need a screwdriver to start it
- No seatbelt = easy death in a collision, if you play on Mortal you should avoid this thing altogether
- The way fuel gauge works make the fuel gauge display a different fuel level than actual when crossing uneven terrain
- Decent top speed
- It can’t idle, when you leave it to idle it stalls
- It only starts after a closely undetermined amount of tries
- When it eventually does start, starting it takes a long time
- Even when you get it running there is a chance it will turn off immediately afterward
- Steering is unresponsive
- Brakes are sub par
- One of the long beams doesn’t work
- Wiper switch takes many tries to lock in a position where the wipers cycle properly
- Left wiper gets stuck a lot
- It overheats very quickly
- Low power and torque at low RPM
- Faulty electrics- Lights flash on bumps
- If you start it with a screwdriver it will get its horn stuck on every minor bump, this is enough to make even a Buddhist monk rage
- No license plates- fine at police checkpoints if you get caught in it
Recommended way of usage:
Honestly, in the vanilla game, there is not much appeal in this car and really you can as well never touch it. If you get the mods I’ll list this will make for a good early game vehicle and maybe even can be used later on if you want.
Suggested mods:
- Ruscko overheat fix- this mod is a must-have for anybody driving Ruscko, bare minimum is needed for this thing to be somewhat good
- Ruscko fixer- previous mod but it lets you fix all the other notorious malfunctions, be aware that it might make this car OP early on if you just fix everything, I personally just repaired the broken starter and idle and connected it with the previous mod, it doesn’t make Ruscko very good but it’s at least not frustrating.
Ferndale
Ferndale belongs to Fleetari, the local mechanic. When you leave Satsuma for repairs at his shop he will lend you this car, just remember to return it or he will dump your car into the swamp.
Pros of Ferndale:
- A lot of room inside and in the boot
- Power, a lot of it
- High top speed
- Very good engine sound
Cons of Ferndale:
- You need to repair your car at Fleetari to gain access to it
- It drinks a lot of fuel
- A lot of wheelspin
- It doesn’t turn well
- Atrocious hood scoop ruins the whole car’s look, I suggest getting some mod to get rid of it
Neither pros nor cons:
- Automatic transmission
Recommended way of usage:
It can be used for driving when Satsuma breaks again and needs repairs, as well as being used for drag racing. As far as I know, even when Fleetari dumps your car into a swamp, he won’t take away Ferndale so you can theoretically daily it.
Jonnez
Jonnez is a small motorbike, available from the start, parked next to your garage.
Pros of the Jonnez:
- First vehicle you will be able to drive
- Pretty quick
- Very fun to drive
- It’s rear rack is sticky, you can put items there and they won’t fall off
- You can carry it around
Cons of the Jonnez:
- Easy to flip over
- You need to wear a helmet or a bumblebee might hit your eye, blinding you and likely resulting in a crash
- The rack is small and items can still fall off if you flip over
- Downshifting unless you are driving almost at idle will result in the bike turning to the side and flipping over
Recommended usage:
Jonnez can be used for quick trips to Teimo and for recreational purposes. It’s a very good option in the job where you drop adverts into people’s mailboxes for Teimo.
Kekmet
Kekmet is a tractor, together with Jonnez it’s available right from the start, it’ll be located at the place where you chop firewood, together with its trailer.
Pros of the Kekmet:
- Available from the start
- Has a range selector and diff lock, both very useful when you get stuck or have to tow something
- You can tow a big trailer
- Has a front loader arm for everything ranging from lifting Satsuma up for maintenance to flipping over the cars of two idiots at Teimo’s store
- Needed for the firewood job which gives you a lot of money
- Physically impossible to stall
- Has hand throttle
- Can carry car wrecks
Cons of the Kekmet:
- While the speed is decent for what this is, Kekmet is still pretty slow at around 55km/h top speed
- Starting procedure is slightly unusual
- If you back it up into a solid object, you die instantly for some reason
- If it flips over, it’s very hard to put back on its wheels
Recommended way of usage:
Kekmet can be reliably used for everyday tasks early on when you don’t have access to Hayosiko yet. Additionally, you need it for the firewood job, it’s also the cheapest method of hauling wrecked cars to Fleetari.
Gifu
Gifu is an old vacuum truck that you get once uncle Kesseli loses his license, it will be parked at the waste processing plant.
Pros of the Gifu:
- A most effective way of hauling car wrecks and towing anything
- Has diff lock, range selector, and ability to lift rear axle
- Needed for emptying sewage tanks, the most profitable job in-game
- You can sleep in it
Cons of Gifu:
- Absolutely horrible fuel economy
- The shifting pattern can be tricky to master
- Unsynchronized gearbox
- Driving it causes stress to increase faster
- Only available late in game
- Pretty slow, but surprisingly quick on dirt roads for what it is
- Brakes can run out of pressure signaled by a loud buzzer, which requires you to rev the engine for a while to repressurize the brakes
Recommended way of usage:
Gifu has quite a limited amount of uses due to its size and awful fuel economy. It should pretty much only be used for sewage tanks, hauling wrecks (it’s better at it than Kekmet, but less cost-efficient), and maybe recovering stuck vehicles. I recommend fuelling it with fuel oil and just not driving on the highway to minimize costs.
That's everything we are sharing today for this My Summer Car guide. This guide was originally created and written by Igoreuss. In case we fail to update this guide, you can find the latest update by following this link.