eBay Car Buying Guide

# Introduction

Hi all! You've probably seen the feature that allows you to buy used cars from eBay - and heard the voiceover say that cars lose races for a reason. This guide will try to clear up what that means, at least partially.

First thing's first: this is really only useful for ILs and not so much for full-game runs. That's because used cars are RNG in the truest sense of the term, and there's simply no chance of not losing time on them in menus. Stick with buying new for long runs.

# New vs used cars

So, what exactly is the difference between new and used cars? In a word, performance. The specific aspects are presently unknown, but two key attributes that differ are power and grip. Used cars can be better or worse than new ones, with worse being much more common, but fortunately for us, there's an easy way to tell which ones are better: the win rate.

# Finding the best cars

Let's have a look at some eBay listings:

https://i.imgur.com/dGsdprB.png

Despite all the information listed, the only two fields that matter are the Event Wins and Events Entered. These will tell you how the car performs, with higher win rates being higher performing. The first car in the list has won 23/97 events, the second has won 43/89, and the third has won 5/27. That means they have a 24%, 48%, and 19% win rate, respectively. This may sound mediocre at first, but there's one hidden detail - cars never win more than half the events, a limit that appears hardcoded into the game. That means the 48% win rate is a high figure that's rarely seen. Additionally, the car is listed at a higher price than a new car would be - when that happens, take note. It could just be that it hasn't been totaled, or it could be that it's special.

# The actual difference

After all these numbers, you're probably wondering what these eBay cars really bring to the table. To find out, I spent a few hours testing different versions of the Plymouth 'Cuda, ranging from 0 wins to 27/59 wins (46% win rate), on the Nürburgring GP Circuit.

* New car: 1:46.82
* 0 wins: 1:50.11
* 17/91 wins (19%): 1:47.20
* 26/85 wins (31%): 1:46.42
* 25/66 wins (38%): 1:45.76
* 27/59 wins (46%): 1:45.54

The scaling is overall as expected, though the advantages appear to taper off at the highest win rates. New cars land smack in the middle.

On a lower level, the win rate directly correlates to the improvement. When a car is purchased from eBay, the win rate is converted and stored in a single value in the savegame, the performance bonus. This bonus is limited to -10% for cars with 0 wins and +2.95% for cars with 49/99 wins. Cars with between 20% and 30% win rates are identical to new cars, while cars with above 30% automatically have a 1% performance bonus, plus an additional 0.1% per 1% win rate. In practice, this translates to the following examples:

* 0% win rate: -10% performance bonus
* 13% win rate: -4.3% performance bonus
* 25% win rate: 0% performance bonus
* 31% win rate: 1.1% performance bonus
* 45% win rate: 2.5% performance bonus

I don't know the exact scaling for negative bonuses, but it doesn't appear to be linear like positive scaling. Suffice to say you shouldn't buy cars with win rates below 20%.

# Mileage and crashes

Neither mileage nor crashes have any effect on performance; however they have an effect on a second value, damageability. This does exactly what it says and makes the car more likely to be damaged after collisions. Unlike with performance, this is always equal to or higher than the value on a new car, where higher values make it more susceptible to damage. The win rate and number of wrecks seem to affect damageability, but there are other seemingly hidden aspects which affect it as well - the "minor crash" and "major crash" values mentioned in the eBay settings, at a guess.

Vehicles that have never been totaled will always have a damageability value of 0.

# Changing listed cars

The only way I've found to change the listed used cars is to buy and resell them repeatedly until one with a good win rate appears. This takes a lot of money, especially with the higher-end vehicles, so it may be best to money hack if you know how. Otherwise, there are savegames on the internet with lots of money, and the pinned one in #weekly-ta on the Discord has enough to get by with most cars.

Alternatively, I've posted a savegame based on the pinned save in #weekly-ta which has all vehicles at a 2.95% performance bonus and 0% damageability bonus, i.e., the best possible values. You can find that on the [resources page](https://www.speedrun.com/grid/resources).

Limiting framerate for better run consistency

Hi all! I recently showed [here](https://www.speedrun.com/grid/forums/0cfp4) that high framerates have a measurable impact on consistency, causing all cars to slide more and causing non-drift cars to slow down more while sliding, so here's a guide for limiting the framerate. Generally, I'd recommend playing at 30 FPS for console parity or 60 if you can't handle 30. I wouldn't go beyond this as the higher your framerate, the more your runs will be impeded.

### Limiting framerate via the game

![](/static/blob/xz0pr4el.png)

Simply enabling vsync and setting the refresh rate to your target framerate will limit the game to that framerate.

If the option for your target resolution/refresh rate doesn't exist, you'll need to use your graphics card software to create a custom resolution setting. (Setting a custom refresh rate in the game's configuration file won't work and  your settings will be reset on next launch.) Official guidance from NVIDIA can be found [here](https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/custom-resolutions/), and AMD's can be found [here](https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/dh3-032). Intel doesn't provide guidance, and it appears the ability to create custom resolutions may have been silently removed from their software in 2023, at least in part.

A disadvantage to this method is that vsync increases input latency, a tradeoff inherent to the technology. If this is a concern, you should disable vsync and use external tools to limit the framerate.

### Limiting framerate via external tools

![](/static/blob/kzw06req.png)

Many tools can limit framerate. One such tool is [RivaTuner Statistics Server](https://www.guru3d.com/download/rtss-rivatuner-statistics-server-download/), a popular utility used by software such as MSI Afterburner and HWiNFO. Its framerate limit option does exactly what it says.

### Avoiding stuttering

If you limit the framerate but choose to keep the game set to a higher refresh rate, and you don't have a monitor that supports variable refresh rate (VRR) or your chosen framerate falls outside its VRR range, you will encounter stuttering if the framerate isn't a unit fraction of the refresh rate. To avoid this, either change the framerate or the refresh rate (if possible) to achieve that unit fraction. Ideally, the refresh rate and framerate would match, but many monitors don't support low rates such as 30 Hz, so you'd want to set it to 60, 90, or 120 Hz for 30 FPS.

### Monitoring framerate

![](/static/blob/xzdlwpnm.png)

I strongly recommend having an overlay to monitor framerate and showing it in submitted runs. There are myriad ways to do this. The aforementioned RivaTuner can display FPS, as can a host of other external tools, along with the Steam overlay, NVIDIA and AMD graphics software, and Xbox Game Bar.

The Basics of Drifting Video Tutorial

Wanting to learn how to get better at drifting in Grid? Watch this video tutorial created by emkay to find out!

https://youtu.be/FBE_6gxwT0c

emkay

burninrubber0

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Chevorlet Lacetti (USA)

Jupiter Eagleray MK5 (USA)

Audi R10 TDI (Europe)

Lola B06/10 (Europe)

Creation CA06/H-JUDD (Europe)

Courage LC70 (Europe)

Koenigsegg CCXR (Europe)

Pagani Zonda R (Europe)

Lola B05/40 (Europe)

Courage C65 (Europe)

Koenigsegg CCGT (Europe)

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Spyker C8 Spider (Europe)

BMW 320SI (Europe)

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TVR Tuscan Challenge (Europe)

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Nissan R390 GT-1 (Japan)

Subaru Impreza (Japan)

Toyota Corolla GT-S (AE86) (Japan)

Mazda RX-7 FD3S (Japan)

Toyota Soarer (Japan)

Nissan Silvia (Japan)

Nissan Skyline GT-R Z-Tune (Japan)

Toyota Supra (Japan)

Honda NSX-R (Japan)

Nissan 350Z (Japan)

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Name	Autor
eBay Car Buying Guide	burninrubber0 2 years ago
Limiting framerate for better run consistency	burninrubber0 1 year ago
The Basics of Drifting Video Tutorial	emkay 9 years ago