[SOLVED]How to make cash?

[ResFu]

Im after about 15 playthroughs and always didnt make any pennie, can someone give me a hand and share how to make good selling beginning car? And in where to start?

Until now i started in Sweden, Mexico, Canada, US and i've made nothing from my cars... I think i just have good ideas how to optimize cars for later game but i dont know how to make a good starter...(my games always end in about first half of 1901)

Please help me. Im sure it would help other players also

[Eric.B]

I assume you're assigning the vehicles to production and distribution in the branches?

If so then here is a quick run down of a way make a modest profit in game:
The game aims to be fairly realistic in its economic simulation. Where were all the car companies in 1900? That's where you want to start.

Also make sure you play on easy.

• Put your HQ in Western Europe or America.
  
• Design your 3 components, try not to make them more than $200 per unit.
  
• When they are finished check the Body Style Demand Report in the Sales Book under reports. This will give you a good indication of what kind of car is in style for that region.
  
• Design the vehicle, try to keep the unit cost under $1000
  
• When the vehicle is done, assign it to production in your HQ factory. Only assign 1 production line and build about 15 cars. You can expand production as you increase your distribution.
  
• Price your car in your branch distribution at roughly 60-100% higher than unit cost. Make sure that it is below 5x per capita or you get an excess wealth penalty in sales.
  
• Open new branches, target cities with more than 300,000 people. Assign the vehicle for distribution in your new branches. Try not to open branches too far away from your factories. Transportation will kill profits.
  
• End the turn, check the sales logs, and check the Vehicle Demand Report. If the Vehicle Demand Reports shows that there is still more demand for the vehicle, increase production.
  
• After a few turns you've probably maxed out production at the factory, if you are still not turning a profit and you still have more demand for vehicles you can increase price. You can do this globally via the calculator. (abacus in the early game.)
  

I just tried that and was making $20,000 profits a month by 6/1901. Not too shabby. When you get a better grasp of the game you can switch to making niche companies but for now aim to be a generic car company.

Ask if you have any more questions!

[ResFu]

Wow, thanks for quick respond. Yes i was producing the cars and appointed them to branches (also always full staff). I think i see my fault in the high car pricing (production cost of 1 car was always between 1,5k to 1,8k). I know that in the beginning sedans are the top product but - well it was just too much to pay for them. Now im thinking maby if those mine cars was pointed to wealthier peoples they will go out faster. About the production lines... Well i dint think about it, always to max ;P

My Canada and Mexico starts was targeted to crank up cheap in production cars (in means - cash payed to workers, yeah i know im a typical corporated douchebag ;P) for America, and becasuse of lower corp tax. My Sweden starts, the same but the target was Europe capital cities. Oh im wondering - if the first and second world wars began do Swedish factories and branches are shut down also? (idling) Im wondering because they were and they are neutral

[Eric.B]

$1,500 cars will work in the correct countries.
Mexico's per capita in 1900 is $91, which means an average of all the citizens they make $91 per persons.

Typically a person does not spend more than their income buying a car. (There are exceptions of course) So roughly 50% of the population there will not spend more than $100 buying a car. $1,500 is 15x per capita, so to give you modern equivalent the per capita in the US is $50,000. How many Americans would buy a $750,000 car? Not many I think

However $1500 in 1900 isn't very much in the United States. It's only 3x per capita. Modern Equivalent of $150,000. People are willing to pay that much in 1900 because cars are new and there isn't much of a used market. Over time 3x per capita will become a harder sale.



You want to try to match production with demand, if you produce too much it's just wasting money. The value of the cars degrade over time so you won't be able to make as much money off excess vehicle supplies.

You could build in Mexico/Canada and sell in US, but transport will eat into your profits until transport cost go down (1960s/1970s). (Check the expenses report in the sales book it will list transport expenses.)

Sweden isn't effected by the wars, however you'll find that there isn't very many places you can sell to during that time. (Also gas prices go up a bit, so transport will be very expensive.)

[ResFu]

So basically, better not to watch on corp tax, but per capita and how much people live in each of cities... So my first thoughts, Chicago, NY, Las Vegas in america and London or one of the big other cities in UK. Paris or Berlin is not in play here, due to stalls during world wars... I'm thinking, ill make a company in Chicago (close to Detroit for later market) named "Mob Motors" ;P

Let's make lotsa cheapos crap cars.. YAY!

[Eric.B]

A company is only taxed when it makes profits. So worry about making profits first!
You can deal with taxes via lobbying and spending more money by increasing your business.

The early game years are based around wealthy people. Since per capita is so low you have to target people who make 3, 4, 5+ times per capita. Those people generally live in the major world Hubs(New York, London, etc). As cost lowers, (1920s) and per capita rises the general public becomes more important. Things like sales price and minimizing cost per unit becomes much more important. Starting the game in 1900 you want to build in big wealthy cities, starting the game in 1980 you'd want something like Malaysia where labor is cheap and cost are low.

As I said the game is pretty historical. Look for areas where real companies started in 1900s and kept going. Detroit, Paris, Southern UK,Germany, Northern Italy. All very good places. But there are also a lot of AI in these areas since the AI is modeled after real companies. Chicago is a good starting place. It has a large population, and is close by other places with large populations.

You don't have to make cheap crappy cars. Just cars suited for the market. Though I do suggest making cheap crappy cars like Ford/Oldsmobile did, it's how they made fortunes. After you get the hang of it, try making an Ultra Luxury company like Rolls Royce.

[ResFu]

I have done as i said, and im quite hapy to say it can be done! As said Mob Motors entered the Chicago market with fabulous all-one-star (except safety with two stars) named Slippy One for production cost around 600-700 $, and now im trying to introduce full sized sedan with a average 1,5-2 stars (2,5 in driveability) for production cost of astonishing 3226$ only for ultra wealth people (i think ill sell that Sigma "Crappy" for about 5250$). Im in 1903 and producing roughly 220 cars selling 210-230 cars (Slippy "One") making between 15k-28k$ - and during research between -0,5k to -3k

Progress!

And oh, didnt mention that i achieved this only selling in Chicago with a newspaper marketing "Broad Band" for 95$ a month.
Im thinking, should i give the fourth line to Slippy "One"? Got 2 free, one is reserved for producing Sigma "Crappy"

Thanks for your answers, they helped me a lot

[Eric.B]

Glad I could help.

Now hopefully my AI will beat you...

[ResFu]

Well, now im making about 90k$ and during research 50k$ after releasing my Sigma "Crappy" (still only Chicago). Now i occured other problem... how to increase my factory capacity? I need to make and sell my pick ups... But i dont want to free up any line - because My Trololol "Uno" (Slippy was from other game where i started in Detroit) is going out like a hot cakes, and i need to increase my capacity and im little bit worried about opening factory in other cities... Dont now how much it will eat of my profits. But maby I should put this in Topic called "How to increase factory output?"?

I will make a real AAR from my new playthrough, when i finish this one, but i need to know if this is possible in current version.

[Eric.B]

You could use retool to boost production numbers in the factory. However it's a little buggy right now. I don't think it gives you any more lines.

Other than that, build another factory in another city.

In the future you'll just use the retool tool in the factory window to increase production lines.

[ResFu]

Yes im in process of building factory in Indianapolis (19 lines) - but i discovered a bug, or maby not i dont know. Whenever you have your generic lines full (lines in your starting city) and you will try to manage it (in means change something - like for example i would like to make there my pickups) it freezes the game. The same error that i posted my first post in bugs topic. I cant really find out where is the button to stop producing everything in "calculator" - how it is called?

[Eric.B]

Yes, this is the same bug that's in the other thread, it has been fixed for 1.08, which should be out in a week or two.

Sorry for the inconveniences... The game is still in beta

[ResFu]

Yes i know, thats no problem (i have factory in Indianapolis now so that's not big deal). I think this can be now as a solved topic. What do you think?

[Eric.B]

Consider it solved