GTA Online Import/Export Guide

The Import/Export update, released in December 2016, introduced an exciting new business venture for aspiring entrepreneurs in Los Santos. As a CEO, you can now steal, modify, and resell luxury vehicles for a tidy profit. However, before you invest your hard-earned cash into this lucrative enterprise, it's essential to understand the ins and outs of the Import/Export business.

In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need to know to get started with Import/Export in GTA Online. From setting up your vehicle warehouse to sourcing and selling cars, we have tips and strategies to help you maximize your profits and minimize your risks.

Key features of the Import/Export update:

• Vehicle Warehouses: Purchase one of the available warehouses to store and modify stolen vehicles before reselling them.
• Source Vehicles: Steal a wide variety of high-end cars, from classic sports cars to modern supercars.
• Export Vehicles: Deliver the modified vehicles to buyers across Los Santos while evading rival players and law enforcement.
• Special Vehicles: Unlock powerful, custom-built vehicles with unique abilities to aid in your Import/Export operations.
• CEO Abilities: Utilize special CEO abilities, such as Ghost Organization and Off the Radar, to gain an edge.

Get Your Expectations (ROI) Right

The first and possibly most important thing you need to deal with in order to ensure that your experience with Import/Export doesn't end with a controller-shaped hole in your display is setting expectations. We went through the same thing with Further Adventures In Finance and Felony earlier this year, where players went out and bought the most expensive executive office, and expected to turn a profit with crates before the next bathroom break.

It takes years, sometimes decades to make a return on investment for businesses in real life — in GTA, it takes about 5-6 hours of gameplay, unless you buy the most expensive version of everything. That is hardly unreasonable, but players expected to make mad stacks with the first delivery, for whatever incomprehensible reason. Naturally, the fact that they didn't was the cause of outrage.

Keep in mind that it will take you even longer to make a profit in Import/Export, but once the money comes in, it validates the effort. The starting investment here is higher, hence taking more time to make a return. However, there are a few tips and tricks to make the most of the new opportunities.

Bring Some Friends

Export missions especially benefit from having some friends along for the ride. Each member of your organization may sell a vehicle, allowing you to sell up to four rides concurrently, which a major bonus considering you'd have to wait out a timer in between each four were you playing solo.

And Bring A Cargobob

Another great tip for either imports or exports is to take a cargobob along with you. This will make it easier to get your car to the warehouse without taking too much damage, minimizing repair costs. When you get NPC aerial attackers, make sure to fly low and fast, as this is the best way to avoid further damage.

Unlock The Discounts

You should also keep in mind that while the special vehicles are all pretty expensive, you can shave off large amounts from their prices by completing each mission associated with the vehicles. In some cases, this discount hits even a million, which is no small amount. The mission for the amphibious technical is useful on its own, since it's short but has a great payout, making it worth playing even once you already have the discount unlocked.

Make Car Collections

One very easy-to-miss detail that is crucial for squeezing as much cash out of Import/Export as possible is the car collections feature. These collections reward industrious players with a lot of bonus cash for assembling a specific shopping list of vehicles for a single customer, and selling them off in one go. Naturally, since sometimes low-cost rides make it into a collection, there is no need to session-hop when working on a collection.

In the end, it isn't particularly hard to make decent amounts of money with the new mechanics introduced to GTA Online with Import/Export, you just need to know what you're doing and go in with realistic expectations. You won't make several million in one sitting, but if you're patient, you'll make a return on investment soon enough, and coupled with the passive income provided by biker businesses and additional cash from crate missions, if you manage your affairs well you won't have many financial issues in the virtual world of Los Santos.

Have you been enjoying success with importing and exporting cars in GTA Online?