How to Save Cars Forever in GTA V Story Mode

The key to saving cars long-term in GTA V story mode is utilizing your garages or upgrading a car at Los Santos Customs. This guides explains the ins and outs of both methods so you can build and maintain an awesome grand theft auto collection.

Storing Vehicles in Garages

Each main character has garage space attached to their safehouse properties where you can securely store vehicles:

• Michael – 2 car garage at his mansion
• Franklin – 2 car garage at his Vinewood house
• Trevor – 1 car garage at his Sandy Shores trailer (with optional 5 car upgrade)

In total, the three protagonist garages provide space for 7 vehicles in the base game. You can expand this substantially by purchasing additional properties with bigger garages:

So in a fully upgraded game, you can store a total of 36 vehicles across character garages – an entire fleet of cars!

Tips for Using Garages:

• Simply drive the car into the garage and exit on foot to save it
• Be aware that special vehicles like police cars can‘t be stored
• Destroyed/wrecked vehicles can‘t be restored if lost
• Leaving the area may still cause parked cars outside to vanish
• Make sure to return frequently to garage stored cars or they can disappear

Overall, garages are the safest and easiest way to build a long term collection.

Upgrading Vehicles at Los Santos Customs

The other method of saving cars permanently is taking them to any Los Santos Customs (LSC) location and purchasing at least one upgrade or modification. This designates it as your personal vehicle.

Upgrades can get pricey ($5,000+), but the benefit is your car will then automatically respawn at your safehouse if destroyed or lost. Very useful for keeping expensive supercars and rare vehicles!

How the LSC Upgrade System Works:

• Drive the car into the LSC garage to access modification menus
• Purchase at least one upgrade (colors, tires, engine tune etc)
• The car is now set as your character‘s "personal vehicle"
• If destroyed or abandoned, it will respawn at your safehouse
• Note: If lost far away, there can be a long respawn delay

Pro tip: Only upgrade cheap or common cars using this method. Rare, valuable vehicles are better protected in purchased garages.

Most Valuable & Practical Vehicles to Save

While you can store up to 36 vehicles in fully upgraded garages, you may not need that much space.

Here are the most recommended cars to save from a practicality + resale value perspective:

• Super cars – Entity XF, Zentorno, T20, Osiris etc
• Fast sedans – Tailgater, Schafter V12
• Offroad – Sandking XL, Dubsta 6×6
• Bikes – Bati 801RR, Akuma
• Helicopters – Frogger, Maverick
• Boats – Dinghy, Suntrap, Seashark

Prioritize your owned garage space for expensive or hard to obtain cars rather than common street vehicles.

Use Los Santos Customs upgrades judiciously – high end supercars will be prime targets for respawn once you unlock the modification shop.

What About Special Vehicles Like Police Cars?

Certain classes of vehicles like police cars, fire trucks and ambulances cannot be stored in garages.

The upgrade system also does not work on all rare cars:

For these, your only option is to return to grab them when needed. Or use cheats!

Reclaiming Impounded Vehicles

If you abandon a specialized or upgraded personal vehicle, it may end up impounded by the police rather than respawning.

You‘ll have to reclaim impounded vehicles from the lot near the police station for a $250 fee. This also applies if you get busted while driving a car you want to keep!

Expert Money Making for Car Customization

Upgrading vehicles or expanding garage storage doesn‘t come cheap in GTA V.

As a collector looking to build an impressive saved car and chopper fleet, you‘ll need to amass some serious cash!

Here are the most profitable activities for fast money:

• Lester‘s assassination missions – Invest wisely in stocks before each hit for $100K+ windfalls
• Robbed liquor stores – Average $5000+ per holdup if you escape cleanly
• Sell stolen cars at LSC – Collect Ballers, Felons and Oracle XS for $9K+ each
• Rig slot machines – Save, bet max, load for jackpot exploits

Other top money makers like heists, stocks and property are great long term earning but slower. Stick to the methods above to quickly fund your expensive automotive habits!

With these GTA insider tips, you‘ll be cruising Los Santos in rare, pimped out saved rides in no time. Now get out there and start building that elite grand theft auto collection!