• Balamb -> Balamb Garden (car): 24 seconds - Balamb Garden -> Balamb (car): 12 seconds - Shopping: 6 seconds

    	Total = 42 seconds
  
    - Balamb -> Balamb Garden (walk): 29 seconds
    - Balamb Garden -> Balamb (walk): 24 seconds
    - Shopping: 6 seconds
  
    	Total = 59 seconds
  

tl:dr - Car wins

With early Quistis card strat you wouldn't have to sell the Elixir to get the train ticket, saves like 3s. So with current route total time save would be 13s for taking the car.

tl;dr - Car wins

Thanks Ahra for the times round-down, precise as always :)

@W1ndows91: I personally never had to sell an Elixir to buy the Train Ticket (i guess you mean to Timber), my first shop is in Timber and the Elixir is still needed for GeroGero. Never saw other runners sell an elixir for money issue.

Did i miss something ? Is it a 100% route issue? Because in any%, that's not happening (btw, Car would be still be faster)

First of all, Car always wins, regardless of the route.

For selling the Elixir or not: You start out the game with 5000 Giil. If you get the car, which costs 3500 Gil, you will be left with only 2500 Gil, which is not enough to afford the train ticket.

Up until recently, with all the walking back to the Cafeteria after Diablos, you would usually get your payments as a SeeD right before the train station in Balamb. This is not the case anymore.

I also made a slight mistake in my first calculations, which i just edited. It seems like the total steps, even without the car, is not enough to skip the shopping.

To be honest, i never had that issue.

I checked my splits with Luzbel WR splits and neither me nor him sell any elixir in Balamb, but we both go for late Quistis card.

Maybe it's that route having issues, the early Quistis card route ... because the time between the seed graduation and the train catch would be shorter so the SeeD payment will be late.

Good to know, I don't know if I will try it any sooner, after the FF9 race i'll go back to FF8 but I still have to derust and gain time from many other places ... so the Early Quistis card for shorter resets is not really something I'm in the need to try asap.

Yes, the early Quistis strat uses less steps after SeeD graduation and more in the early game. That's why with early Quistis strat you have to sell an elixir in Balamb.

Also Ahra, using the Car doesn't reduce the number of steps you take, you can gain SeeD salary during the car ride and while on a chocobo as well; in fact, you can get more steps per unit of time in a chocobo than by walking. Using the Garden and Ragnarok doesn't increase your steps.