Vehicle customisation and Rideout Customs

Vehicle customisation was one of the bigger open questions about Grand Theft Auto 6. Los Santos Customs and the Benny's shops were central to Grand Theft Auto V and its online mode, but Rockstar hadn't shown anything like them for the new game.

The Ultimate Edition press material shows one: Rideout Customs, across three images.

What the three shots establish

The first is a finished build under studio lighting: a gold lowrider on spoked wheels with playing-card detailing on the centres. The second is an interior detail, a red buttoned cabin with a chain steering wheel. The third is the workshop itself, with a yellow car up on stands, one mechanic underneath it and another working from a clipboard.

Put together, that's a shop, a process and an output. It's about as clear as it gets without Rockstar actually saying the word.

There's one more line on it in the store listing. The PlayStation Store's list of Ultimate Edition content names Rideout Customs as one of five Special Destinations the upgrade unlocks, alongside Sara's Unisex Salon, Stock 305, Electric Fang Tattoo and One-Eyed Willie's.

The lowrider is a specific choice

A gold lowrider on wire wheels with card-suit detailing is a long way from a generic tuner build. It comes out of a real and highly developed American car culture, and Rockstar's been here before with the Benny's Original Motor Works content, which became some of the most popular stuff in Grand Theft Auto Online.

The green Canis off-roader shown elsewhere in the same press set, under the name One-Eyed Willie, points the same way from the other direction. It's a heavily modified 4x4, photographed in a workshop mid-build, and the store listing says One-Eyed Willie's is an off-road mod shop at Lake Leonida.

A respray under the evidence system

Under the evidence system, your vehicle's a tracked item the police match against you. That puts customisation in an awkward and interesting spot: the more distinctive your car, the easier it is to describe.

Respraying a car has historically been the way to clear a wanted level in this series. If the police are now working from a full description of you and your car, and a star rating isn't the whole story anymore, a trip to a body shop stops being a cheat and starts being evidence disposal.

Edge's 29 October cover feature, from a Rockstar demo, adds a wrinkle. It reports that some expensive modern cars have trackers that keep broadcasting where they are after they're stolen, and that owners can report a theft even without one. Edge didn't cover customisation or resprays, so whether a body shop deals with any of that is still open.

What isn't known

Rockstar hasn't described the customisation system or published a parts list. It hasn't said whether Rideout Customs is one shop or a chain, and it hasn't confirmed whether respraying ties into the wanted system at all. It's also unclear what being an Ultimate Edition destination means for everyone else: whether Standard players get Rideout Customs later, get a different shop, or don't get it. Everything above is read off photographs and store listings.