Car Flipper

About

Buy low. Sell high. Don't get burned. That door looks just as shiny as the rest of the car. Run the paint tester over it and the reading jumps, because somebody painted over something and the seller forgot to mention it. Every car in Car Flipper has a story, and the seller is only telling you part of it. The good news is that plenty of what puts buyers off is cheap to fix. Foggy headlights make a car look years older. Work the compound in, spray them clear, and the same car suddenly looks like somebody took care of it. Buy what looks rough, fix what buyers notice, and sell it for more. Car Flipper is a first person game about buying used cars off strangers and selling them for more than you paid. There's no dealership and no staff, just you, a phone full of listings and not a lot of cash in a small town called Pine Hollow. You can do all of it on your own, or bring up to three friends along and split the work. Reading the car The listings tell you more than they mean to. Some sellers own up to everything. Some forget a thing or two. Some round the miles down and somehow never get around to sending a picture of the engine. Ask for more photos, run the history report, then go and see it for yourself. Not every car is on the apps, either. Some are just parked on the side of the road with a For Sale sign in the window. Walk up and text the number on the sign, and the seller writes back with the price and the miles and comes out to meet you. Once you're there, pop the hood and check the oil. Milky oil usually means a head gasket, and if it sparkles there's metal in it. Plug the scanner in under the dash and the codes come up on your phone. Sometimes you'll find out somebody cleared them right before you showed up, which tells you plenty on its own. Walk around the body with the paint tester, mark every dent and scratch you find, and bring all of it up when you start talking price. Last of all, start it up and look for smoke, unless the seller already had it running before you got there. Can't make it out yourself? Pay the mobile mechanic to go and have a look. He'll tell you what he found, and he'll also tell you what he didn't bother checking. Storage auctions Every Monday and Friday at 9 AM, Pine Hollow Self Storage sells off the units nobody's paid for. Buy a bidder ticket at the desk, take your paddle and wait for the doors to roll up. There's a car inside, and it's locked. You can't open it, start it or plug anything into it, so all you get is a look from behind the tape. How much dust is on it, what's leaked onto the floor, what's sitting in the boxes next to it. Then the bidding starts, and the regulars won't make it easy. Win and you pay a premium on top, and no keys means a call to the locksmith. Some of these cars just sat too long. Some of them look fine and are dead inside. Fixing it up Once it's yours, the mechanic puts it on the lift and hands you an invoice with everything that's actually wrong with it. You only pay for the inspection on the problems you missed, so it pays to look properly. What gets fixed after that is up to you. Do the headlights yourself, wash it at the car wash or at home with your own pressure washer, or leave it with the shop for repairs and a respray. The shop does more than repairs, too. You can change the paint finish, add stripes or a second color, tint the windows, fit underglow or a custom plate, and change the ride height. Performance parts cover the brakes, suspension, gearbox, exhaust and induction, and you even get to pick the color of your tire smoke and exhaust flames (a few of those colors come with the Supporter Pack). If you'd rather save the money, head out to the junkyard. Grab a wrench, pull the door or bumper or headlight you need off one of the wrecks, and pay the clerk on your way out. Parts only fit cars that share the same body, and the good stuff doesn't sit there long because other pickers come through too. Some cars just aren't worth saving, and the yard will happily take those off your hands for scrap. Selling it on Take your own photos, pick a price and post it on Curbside or Dougslist. Buyers message you, come by, walk around the car and haggle over whatever they spot. Rinse it properly first, because nobody wants a car that's still covered in soap. Agree on a price, shake hands, and watch them drive off in it. Rent it out A car doesn't have to sit in the driveway while you wait for the right buyer. Once you hit level 4 you can list it on Keyswap and rent it out by the day. You pick the price, the deposit and how many miles a day they get. Requests come in on their own, every renter comes with reviews, and you can ask a couple of questions before you say yes. When it's time, drive the car to the spot the app marks on your map, park it in the box and walk away. The renter shows up and drives off in it, and every so often you'll see it go past in traffic. If they bring it back late, short on gas or over the miles, the fees come out of their deposit. Drag racing On Friday and Saturday nights the racers line up at the Strip. Walk along the curb, check out their cars and pick who you want to run against. Put some cash on it, roll up to the line and watch the lights. Go on green. Go early and you've lost before you've even moved. From level 6 you can race for pink slips, one a night, and whoever loses walks home. Some of them have more under the hood than they're letting on. When there's no race on, the roads around town are all yours, traffic and all. Bring your friends Invite up to three friends through Steam and they join your game with characters they made themselves. Everyone sees the same phone and the same money. One of you can drive while the others ride along in the passenger and back seats, and anyone can point out the rust the seller was hoping nobody would notice. You decide how far you trust each of them. A Visitor can look around and help inspect. A Helper can message sellers, fuel up and wash cars. A Partner can agree on prices and even sign for a loan. Everybody carries their own gas can, so nobody drinks your fuel, but the money for refills still comes out of the business. Bigger cars, bigger risks You're never going to end up running a dealership. You get better at reading cars, and you level up. Each level opens up something new to buy, like an OBD scanner, a bigger gas can, a pressure washer for home, or another app for the phone. The local shop starts treating you like a regular too. The cars go from tired commuter sedans all the way up to supercars, and the expensive ones cost more than you'll have saved. That's what the bank is for. Borrow what you need, pay it back every week with a fee on top, and try not to miss a payment. Home is the workshop at the end of the driveway, because the homeowners association sealed your garage. There's room for thirteen cars and that's it, so you'll keep having to choose between a quick sale, renting it out and waiting for the right buyer. Features • Online with up to four players, with passenger seats, a shared wallet and trust levels you set for each friend. • A first person inspection with the dipstick, a paint tester, an OBD scanner and your own eyes. • Hidden problems on every car, and sellers who warm engines up, clear the codes and roll the odometer back. • Two listing apps, history reports that only know what got reported, paid alerts, and tips from the regulars at the bar. • Cars for sale on the side of the road, with the seller's number on the sign in the window. • Storage auctions twice a week, where you bid on a car you're not allowed to touch. • Hands on fixing up with headlight restoration, the car wash, junkyard parts, and a mechanic with a paint booth. • A shop that customizes and tunes, from paint finishes, tint and underglow to brakes, gearbox and exhaust. • Buyers who look your car over and argue about what they find. • Keyswap, a rental app that puts your cars to work between sales. • Drag races on Friday and Saturday nights, for cash or for pink slips. • Sixteen cars from cheap sedans to supercars, and bank loans for when you want the ones you can't afford. • Tools and apps you unlock as you level up, plus an old computer in the workshop that runs the same apps (most of the time). • A whole town to get around in, with traffic on the roads, your workshop, the gas station, the bank, the junkyard, the storage lot, the bar, the bus, and a tow truck for when things go wrong.