The Auto Shop is a part of the well-received Los Santos Tuners update, and it adds great variety to your grind. That said, you’re likely here because you’re not sure how to buy an Auto Shop in GTA Online. No stress there, it may be a really simple problem that we can solve in a few minutes here.
That said, this guide goes beyond just how to buy an Auto Shop in GTA Online. I’ll also cover all the locations, the extras, and things to look out for — so enjoy the read and get ready to soak up a bunch of valuable info.
Before you buy an Auto Shop in GTA Online
If you want to buy an Auto Shop in GTA Online, you have to purchase a membership to the LS Car Meet first. If you haven’t yet, you can do this by visiting the location displayed on the below map. Once there, you’ll get a cut scene, after which you can buy a membership for a one-off price of GTA$50,000.
Once that’s done, it’s time to pull up your phone and buy your very own Auto Shop in GTA Online.
How to buy an Auto Shop in GTA Online
Open up your phone (in-game) and enter the browser. Click on the Maze Bank Foreclosures website (it should be visible on your screen), and click on “Enter Site,” then filter the results to show only the Auto Shops by clicking “Auto Shops” on the top right hand of your screen. Click on the Auto Shop you want, and click on the button “Buy From…”
Now select the custom options you want, and congratulations, you’re the owner of your very own auto Shop. Now, which one you want to buy is up to you, but here are the options available to you.
Pro Tip: When looking deciding to buy any business in GTA Online, I always try to get them close to each other. This helps ease the management of things a lot, trust me! When you own 10 different businesses, keeping them all stocked and running can be a headache.
All the Auto Shops in GTA Online
Starting from the northern-most Auto Shop, here are all of those you can buy in GTA Online.
Burton
This is the one I went with, simply because it was the closest to my other businesses. It’s a great spot in the northern parts of the city of Los Santos. It starts from GTA$1,850,000.
La Mesa
The La Mesa Auto Shop is the eastern-most one you can buy. If you’ve been buying your businesses on the eastern side of the map, this could be a good choice for you. It is the most expensive though, starting from GTA$1,920,000.
Mission Row
The Mission Row Auto Shop is also a pretty good location, but too far East to my liking. It’s right next to the man-made river that runs through Los Santos though, so if you like the smell of icky water in the morning, this one might be for you (maybe that’s why it’s the cheapest). It starts from GTA$1,670,000.
Strawberry
The Strawberry Auto Shop is pretty much central in Los Santos. Not much else to say about it, it’s a shop that fixes cars, and starts from GTA$1,705,000.
Rancho
The final Auto Shop you can buy in GTA Online starts from GTA$1,750,000 and is the most southern shop. It’s right on a corner, so business should be good (this actually makes no difference in-game).
All Auto Shop Custom Options
There are five total customization options available to you when buying your Auto Shop. Some of these are purely aesthetic, and don’t affect the running of your business at all. Let’s run through them quick.
Style
This is purely a visual upgrade, and the only thing that matters is your taste. If you’re strapped for cash, you can skip this option and it won’t affect the money-making ability of the auto shop at all. Considering these can range from GTA$265,000 to GTA$450,00, it might be better to just leave your shop undressed.
Tint
Another purely visual upgrade, the tint adds a unique color to your Auto Shop. It costs GTA$187,500 to add, so again, if you’re strapped for cash, best to avoid this one altogether. I had plenty of Cayo Perico money when the Los Santos Tuners update dropped, so I went all out.
Emblem
The last visual upgrade. This simply adds a custom emblem to your shop. You can add your crew emblem for free, but the paid emblems start from GTA$62,000 up to GTA$104,500. Not the most expensive upgrade, so it’s all up to you.
Staff
Staff don’t do all that much in the Auto Shop, but they can deliver customer cars for you (more on that later). If you do have the money to spend, why not? Otherwise, this is a bit of a wasteful upgrade if you’re planning on grinding the Auto Shop anyway.
A single staff member will set you back GTA$385,000, and both will cost GTA$770,000 when you buy your Auto Shop in GTA Online.
Extras
Finally, some functional upgrades. Well, kind of. Under extras for your GTA Online Auto Shop, you have quarters and a second car lift. The quarters just adds a wardrobe and gun locker to your Auto Shop for a fairly reasonable price of GTA$340,000.
The second car lift will cost GTA$650,000, which may seem steep, but you can get GTA$60-100k for each customer car delivery (more info in the next section), so it pays for itself pretty quickly.
Auto Shop Missions in GTA Online
You have a few different new missions that unlock for you when you buy an Auto Shop. These can also be great money makers, and to be honest, I’ve completely been ignoring my Auto Shop since I bought a Salvage Yard – but it’s good money.
Modify Customer Cars
The first mission available to you is the option to modify customer cars according to their specifications, and they’ll pay you handsomely. This does get boring pretty fast, but you can average about GTA$80-100k per delivery, so it can be worthwhile.
Though it’s not a super reliable way to grind, since cars have to be delivered to your Auto Shop first, and this takes some in-game time to happen.
Auto Shop Contracts
You get access to contract work for Sessanta and other clients when you buy your Auto Shop. These can be a nice little income, and add some variety if you’re constantly grinding other business missions. There’s some variation in the contracts you’ll get, so it can be a fun way to spend some time with friends.
Exotic Exports List
Each day, you’ll have a list of exotic cars that are wanted on the market. You can grab these and deliver them to the docks for GTA$20k each – that’s a total of GTA$200k in one day, so it’s decent money, but it is a bit of a grind. Finding all the cars can also be quite the challenge.
You’ll get a bonus GTA$100k if you deliver all the cars on the list. If the Auto Shop is your only business, this could be a viable way of making money. But honestly, the Bunker, the Nightclub, or even the Salvage Yard are preferred means of making money.
A warning about buying the Auto Shop in GTA Online (Bug)
There’s currently a known bug with the Auto Shop that doesn’t allow you to customize customer cars properly. So you get this view, with the custom options grayed out, and your only choice is to deliver an unfinished car.
I tested this to make sure that you can still deliver the car, and yes, it works. But you usually lose some money and Sessanta will send you a text message saying the customer is unhappy. I got this one once though, which I found really funny.
So, the customer brought their car in, and we took it straight back without making any changes, and they loved it! So… why, exactly, did they bring it in in the first place? I guess we’ll never know.
Rockstar’s bug-squashing game hasn’t been top-tier lately, so this might be around for a while, just so you’re aware. The Auto Shop is a still a decent money-maker, but the Salvage Yard is my preferred choice for the moment.
I made well over a million this week from the Salvage Yard alone, and I only play for a an hour or two a day.
But I digress, that’s all you need to know about how to buy an Auto Shop on GTA Online – and how to run one as well. Everything else comes pretty naturally, and you should have no problem. Unless you have a friend like I do, that dies in every mission. Then the contracts might be a bit of a challenge.
If you’re in the mood for more GTA Online content, check out How to buy a business in GTA Online — it goes over all the businesses, not just the Auto Shop.
