Getting started in Car Service Together – beginner tips

So, you’ve picked up Car Service Together on Steam, you open the game, start your garage and you immediately realise, you know absolutely nothing about cars. Okay, maybe that’s just me, but having put a solid 200 hours into the game, restarting multiple times because i’ve ran out of money – here’s my guide to becoming the best grease monkey in town.

To be clear, Car Service Together launched in early access on February 4th 2026, and most likely will be for a few months to come, but the devs are working hard on bringing new features, like the recent gearbox stage 1 update, which released on March 13th.

Anyway – let’s dig in, here’s my definitive guide to Car Service Together.

1. Surviving the “Poverty” phase

When you start your garage in Car Service Together, you have very little money. I myself had to restart my save multiple times, because I accepted jobs which were just far too expensive for what I could afford, especially at the very beginning of the game.

When it comes to making money, and making money fast, you’ll want to stick with what I call the Fast Four:

• Batteries
• Brake pads
• Oil changes
• Air filters

Why? Because they are incredibly fast. You do not even need to put the car on a lift for most of them. Especially batteries, because in most cases you can simply recharge the battery, without needing to buy a new part. Literally free money. Fast jobs mean fast reputation points (RP) and fast cash. RP is needed to expand the shop, buy new agreements, and unlock the paint shop – more on that later.

Always Take the Upsell. Some clients will allow “optional extras”, which means you can fix anything you see on the car. Always do this. The optional extras are generally things like oil, batteries, pads, etc – fast to change, but add a healthy margin to your payment. Nobody ever said extra money is bad money.

The Parts Bin is Your Friend. When you take off an old, broken part, Car Service Together places them in your inventory. Sometimes the parts can be reused on a different job, or they’re completely knackered, but if they are – you can just sell them for a little bit of pocket money.

2. The Diameter Trap: How to Avoid Bankruptcy

This is the number one trap for new players, or me, at least.

You will open the job board and see a ticket offering $2,000. The job simply asks you to change a set of 14″ rims to 16″ rims. Ignore this job completely.

The payout looks amazing, but the game does not pay for the parts upfront. You have to buy four brand new 16″ tires and four brand new 16″ rims out of your own pocket. This will instantly drain your starting funds. If you accidentally buy the wrong style of rim, you cannot return it. Your entire profit margin vanishes.

Save these aesthetic upgrade jobs for later. Wait until you have at least a $10,000 cushion in the bank.

3. Managing Your Shop and bays

Build the Tire Machine Immediately Players constantly ask on the Steam Community Hub where the tire machine is. You have to build it yourself. Open your shop menu, find an empty floor slot, and place it. I highly recommend placing it right next to your primary lift. This saves you valuable walking time.

Buy Customer Bays Before Lifts Your first major investment should be extra customer bays outside. More bays give you more choices. If you only have one bay, you are forced to take whatever broken car rolls up. If you have four bays, you can scan all four cars. You can then cherry-pick the easiest, highest-paying jobs and ignore the complex engine failures.

Upgrade your service bays Do not waste your early money on silly stuff. Upgrade your lifts, tyre machines and everything else. Faster animations mean you finish jobs faster. Saving three seconds per lug nut adds up to hours of saved time.

4. The “Wrong Process Price” Penalty

This mechanic causes more frustration than anything else in the game. You finish a long job, hit the button to call the customer, and the game slashes your pay for a “Wrong Process Price.”

Here is how to avoid it:

Follow the Golden Rule You must replace parts with the exact specifications that came off the vehicle. Let us say a car comes in with a broken 15″ Basic Caliper. You must put a 15″ Basic Caliper back on it.

No Free Upgrades You might have a really nice “Sport” brake pad sitting in your inventory. Do not put it on a standard commuter car. The customer did not ask for a sport pad. They will not pay for it, and the game will penalize you for not following instructions.

5. Pushing to the Mid-Game: Rust and Paint

Once you survive the poverty phase, you need to focus on your Reputation (RP). RP unlocks the real money makers in this game.

Prioritize the Body Shop As soon as you reach the required RP level, unlock the Rust and Paint shops. Rust removal is basically a license to print money. It costs almost nothing to do. You just need some basic spray and sanding tools. The payouts are massive compared to mechanical work.

Clean Everything Deep cleaning and polishing cars is the easiest way to boost customer satisfaction. A sparkling clean car earns significantly more RP than a dirty one. You can do this even if the mechanical repair was identical. Always wash the cars before returning them.

6. Play Car Service Together – together

Thankfully, the first time I played CST, I played with a car nerd, who held my hand through the process of most of the jobs. In reality though, the jobs are easy – sure, some things may be a little more complicated, but don’t let the fact you don’t know anything about cars put you off the game. It really is a fun way to kill hours, and it’s actually quite relaxing too.