Car Detailing Simulator: Time To Book A Wax Session

Binging on a game always makes me feel somewhat guilty and overthinking about what I’m doing with myself. In the past week, I’ve gorged on Ghost of Tsushima while keeping Car Detailing Simulator on the go. For what end? Have I been enjoying myself? Absolutely, but when it’s all over, where did the time go.

Fortunately, Ghost is still on my playlist, but I hit the wall with the latter. After all the time spent playing it, I hit a bug(?) that means I can’t do anything else in the game. This has been reported to Games Incubator, so the review will be updated accordingly. Until then, unless this is extremely rare, I can’t recommend it as I couldn’t progress can recommend it – a patch, as of 14th April has fixed the issue.

To make it easier on myself for future editing, the review is a positive one, so should the above get fixed, I can delete the paragraph, or perhaps leave it there as a warning ‘just in case’.

Car Detailing Simulator is precisely that. Clients will contact you to give their car a pampering by spraying it in foam and then washing and wiping it down. Soon, they’ll get more demanding and ask you to polish the cars, remove scratches, clean the wheels, buff headlights, fix seats and other variations.

Naturally, they’ll pay you for your services which can go towards buying new kits, upgrades for your workspace, bigger premises, and cars at the auctions to display or sell for a tidy profit. More on that as we progress. But in short, this is a glorified car wash game. Some clients will give you multiple vehicles – such as the cheerleading squad. Alas, they don’t make an appearance, nor were they available during a car washing montage of them in their smalls and covered in bubbles.

Most of the actions in Car Detailing Simulator are similar: a bit of Daniel-san ‘wax on and offs’, small circular motions, and pixel hunting for water residue. For each task, there will be a completion gauge, and for most, you’ll need 100%. That means getting rid of all the drops during a foam wash when you wipe it down. To counter this challenge, pressing the right mouse button will send out a ‘radar’ in red to show what you missed. This is very problematic with the red cars.

Generally, you can move around each vehicle, except pickup trucks – they’re an absolute bitch when you want to clean in the back. That said, the race cars in the AMMO NYC DLC are even trickier. Once the car is complete, you can take a photo of it and return it to the customer. Pending you do everything correctly, you’ll get a 5-star rating which improves your rankings and unlocks new things. Getting into the top three will award you with some bling to display in your garage.

There’s a bit of a story at the beginning of Car Detailing Simulator, but the game seems to give it up, and it’s a literal rinse and repeat throughout. My real complaint with the game is the RSI element, as you’re constantly making repetitive motions with a mouse. It’s the same old throughout, and the lack of licensed cars is disappointing, though they improve in AMMO NYC DLC, and you’ll see the likes of the classic Porche 911, only it’s called a Pogger. Or similar.

You can steam through Car Detailing Simulator and build your reputation, but the highlight is buying from an auction, cleaning up the car and selling at a profit. With this method, you can upgrade your premises quickly and access pro kits that save time. I found myself cutting corners with the client’s cars but would be far more meticulous with my vehicles – taking a little pride, if you will.

I would suggest playing the demo first, and if you’re happy with the style of play and prepared to do the same thing again and again, perhaps Car Detailing Simulator is perfect for you. Progress means something with the upgraded kits as they improve workflow, but you’ll essentially see everything within the first hour whether you have the time and patience to get to the number one spot.

The AMMO NYC DLC is a must, as far as I’m concerned, though I would opt for that over the base game. It’s essentially the same thing as you have to start afresh, but the workspace is better, and the car roster is much better and less bland than the muscle cars in the main content. Note that it’s DLC and not a standalone, so you would need both.