Need a ride? | (Image: The Indie Stone via HGG / Nathan Hart)
I'm a stand-up comic by night and write for HGG by day. Most of my gaming happens at an improvised desk at the Days Inn right outside whatever small town I'm in for the night.
Reviewed by Benjamin Barr
Trapped in rural Knox County, Kentucky, you’ll need to rely on their wits and luck to survive the zombie apocalypse. Scrounging around in Project Zomboid will make you miss common commodities like warm food, running water, and functional cars. Cars are an invaluable part of your repertoire. Getting the right one early on can set you up for success far into the future. In today’s article, we’ll help you pick the best car in Project Zomboid to boost your chances of survival.
The 5 Best Vehicles in Project Zomboid, Ranked Useful to Essential
Let’s get you back on that long, lonely road with the five best cars in Project Zomboid.
5/5
Dash Bulldriver
This all-terrain pickup truck will be the first of the cars we talk about today. While it’s usually far from being the best, there are some niche situations where it could be your top pick.
The Bulldriver comes with a powerful engine, and the second-highest total carrying capacity of any vehicle in the entire game. It’s classified as a heavy vehicle, so you can only fix it up by swapping out parts from other heavy trucks or vans. It isn’t particularly fast, but not the slowest either.
The greatest downside to a Dash Bulldriver is that it is absolutely the loudest vehicle in the game. You can swap in a performance muffler to drop the noise factor a little bit, but the Bulldriver will likely still pull crowds of zombies from surrounding areas whenever you drive it into town.
The biggest perk to a Dash Bulldriver is that it has four all-terrain tires. The car is also set up in such a way that you’re unlikely to take damage on rough terrain. Every vehicle in the game has some hidden ratings related to how much damage its parts take when you go off-roading. Luckily, the Dash Bulldriver outperforms almost every other vehicle in this department.
This is important if you want to get to the hidden military base. By the time you’re geared up enough to raid the area, the pathway will likely be overgrown and difficult to pass through. The Bulldriver should be able to reliably survive the trip, give or take a bit of damage.
Dash Bulldriver Variants
You can find a few different variants of this vehicle. Some of these variants come with an even more powerful engine, a two-way radio, and sirens built in. We’ll list each variant below and what you can expect to find in it:
- Police: likely to be full of shotguns and ammo.
- Fire department: likely to contain at least one axe.
- Logging company: often has leather gloves in the back.
- Oil company: often contains miscellaneous tools within.
- Park ranger: chance at ranger clothes and possibly some bonus tools.
The basic Bulldriver can be found all over the map, while the variants will typically be found at more niche locations. Look for police roadblocks on the highway for the police variant, and construction sites for the oil/logging company trucks.
4/5
Chevalier Cossette
If you’re a Speed Demon, then you’ll want to grab this one in Project Zomboid. With the absolute highest top speed in the game, the Cossette is a one-way ticket to wherever you want to go. As long as you’re the only one going there.
The Chevalier Cossette has the most powerful engine in the game and the strongest engine power-to-weight ratio of any vehicle. This means it’s incredibly mobile, easily beating out any other vehicle in a street race. Its drawbacks include being one of the loudest non-heavy vehicles and having the lowest total storage space of all cars in Project Zomboid.
Sometimes you’ll want to make a long trek to a nearby town, and going down the highway can take an extensive amount of time. The Cossette is the perfect car for these situations. This is especially true if you’re playing on a long-time multiplayer server, where wrecks on major highways have been cleared out and the highway zombie hordes have been depleted.
It’s also the perfect vehicle for slamming directly into a lone streetlight at 200 miles per hour, killing your survivor instantly. You better get used to using the cruise control to avoid this car being “how you died.”
This is the only “Sport” category car that we have on this list, because it’s the strongest option of the category. However, “Sport” is also the smallest category with only four vehicles, instead of five like the other two categories. Since all cars from this category are fairly rare in Project Zomboid, repairing your Cossette can be a bit difficult.
This is because you can only repair vehicles by using parts from the same category. You’ll have to probably put in a lot more legwork finding spare parts from a “Sports” vehicle. It also requires higher mechanic skills than others. Make sure you’ve got plenty of spare parts lying around to practice with! If you still feel the overwhelming need for speed, look for a Chevalier Cossette in Riverside, near two-story houses or outside the bar on the west part of town.
3/5
Chevalier Step Van
Of all the cars in Project Zomboid, the Step Van has the absolute highest item-carrying capacity with its massive trunk space. Thanks to its reliable engine, it’ll have no trouble hauling around huge loads of gear.
A Step Van can potentially carry everything you’d ever need in order to establish a mobile base. This removes the need for you to drive all the way back to your own safehouse in order to keep your loot secured. This car is also the go-to choice for looting valuable backyard structures like a grill or a generator.
The downside is that the Step Van lacks capability in almost every other factor. It’s rather slow and not great at hauling around other vehicles/trailers due to having a relatively weak engine for its size. It’s also difficult to tow, being the heaviest vehicle in the game. Your best bet is to use it to haul gear from one safe house to another. Alternatively, you can use it as a loot depot, while you scavenge the surrounding area.
Being a “Heavy-Duty” type vehicle, you can only fix it with parts from other trucks or vans. Luckily, this car is relatively easy to fix, with fewer breakable windows than others. The cases where you’ll be using this van are hopefully times when you won’t need to be moving too quickly. This will prevent the accidental damage that tends to be the source of degrading car parts in Project Zomboid.
Step Van Variants
There are three variants to the Step Van, all of which are mechanically identical, but carry different kinds of packages inside.
- Mail truck: tends to carry books and paper products
- Newspaper van: also tends to carry books and paper products
- Liquor truck: often contains plenty of useful medical resources
Thankfully, all kinds of Step Vans are relatively common. This is a rather nice perk, given that an abundance of spare parts will help you keep your own van in high condition.
2/5
Chevalier Nyala
This humble car might seem like an odd choice for the second-best vehicle in the game, given how ubiquitous the Chevalier Nyala is. However, the sheer number of these sedans you’ll be able to find in Project Zomboid is part of why it’s a top pick for anyone’s daily driving vehicle.
With adequate trunk space, maneuverability, and ease of repair, the Nyala is a fantastic choice for your primary vehicle. Plus, if you break it down too badly, spare parts are everywhere.
There are a few variants of the Nyala, but we’ll be focusing only on the police and park ranger variants. These two variants add some extra functionality to the vehicle for you.
Both of these variants tend to have weapons in the trunk, and they get a two-way radio and a set of lights and sirens on top. These sirens can be used to draw zombie attention away from an area you plan on looting. The downside of the police variant is that you can’t access the back seat from the front, making it difficult to use the back seats as storage.
Even a normal Nyala is still superior in many ways to its peers in the “Standard” category, like the Masterson Horizon. It’s just slightly more maneuverable, with a stronger engine and more carrying capacity. On a multiplayer server, you can fit three friends into the car with you, which is a lot better than most of the other cars on this list. The Chevalier Nyala is everywhere, so the chances of being able to snag one for yourself are pretty high.
1/5
Franklin Valuline Ambulance Edition
The Franklin Valuline is an acceptable van in its own right. It has a decent carrying capacity, the ability to fit a lot of gear, and can transport a decent number of crew members. However, one particular variant takes the cake as the best overall vehicle in the game, that being the ambulance.
You’ll often find these outside of hospitals or medical clinics, as well as scattered across various roadways. Though on those occasions, you’ll usually find them with a group of zombified patients in scrubs standing around them.
The ambulance is the best all-around car in Project Zomboid for a few reasons. First off, it has a huge amount of carrying capacity, second only to the step van. At the same time, it also has an incredibly powerful engine, the strongest engine out of all vehicles outside of the “Sports” category. You’ll often find a lot of medical supplies in the back of an ambulance, as well as a specific, medically-themed duffel bag. Like other emergency vehicles, the ambulance also has lights and sirens that can be used to stage a distraction if necessary. Plus, it’s heavy enough that you can plow through bigger crowds of zombies with less risk.
Lastly, the sheer power behind the engine of the ambulance makes it great for towing other vehicles or a trailer behind it. An ambulance with a trailer can make just as good of a mobile base as a Step Van would, while being significantly more maneuverable and giving you the tactical options that come with having access to its siren system. Its only major downsides are being loud, and only having two seats inside. Larger parties will need to split up into more than a single vehicle. Watch out zombies, emergency services are on their way!
Join the High Ground
Getting the best cars in Project Zomboid will set you up for your long-term survival. Whether it’s a step van for hauling long distances, a Cossette to get from one side of the map to the other as quickly as possible, or an Ambulance for pretty much everything, we hope this guide helps you and your clan of survivors take the high ground.
Do you agree with our list? Leave your thoughts below in the comments! And make sure to subscribe to our weekly news letter for more Project Zomboid and other gaming content!
Good luck out there survivor!
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