Beaters

Beaters (not to be confused with Wrecks) are cars in the Grand Theft Auto series with reduced performance, engine problems or mismatched body parts like bumpers and fenders. They are rusted or run down.

Description
These cars are old and rusted, but still drivable, albeit with reduced performance. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, these are actually separate vehicles to their normal counterparts in the game's code, explaining why they cannot be repaired or modified.

The Grand Theft Auto series has not traditionally featured working cars in dilapidated form until GTA: San Andreas. Earlier signs of such vehicles are primarily present in Grand Theft Auto III ' s Hoods Rumpo XL and  Grand Theft Auto: Vice City ' s Gang Burrito (variants of the Rumpo and Burrito, respectively). Both vehicles, which are essentially variants of commercial vehicles, feature multi-colored body panels and paint jobs, as well as graffiti on their sides, but they are both superior in performance over the vehicles they are based on. In GTA: San Andreas the Clover and Tampa appear with mismatched body panels, the Tampa itself featuring lopsided license plates. In addition, damaged variants of the Glendale and Sadler are scattered throughout rural San Andreas, with their body panels dented and irreparable.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, beaters tend to have delayed ignitions, very weak suspensions, weak tires and a tendency to backfire. GTA IV beaters can be partially repaired and repainted, though the weak performances remain.

In Grand Theft Auto V, a few beaters can actually be given more performance-oriented modifications than their undamaged counterparts, making the beater variants more desirable; these include the beater Rusty Rebel, which can be turned into a trophy truck, and the Rat-Loader which can be modified into a high-performance rat rod. However, even with resprays and repairs, any rust, fading, dents and corrosion cannot be removed, unless there is a specific modification that replaces the damaged parts with undamaged ones.

In Grand Theft Auto Online, several beaters were introduced, such as the Technical (and its aqua variant), the Rat Bike, the Tornado Rat Rod and the Wastelander. Despite their unappealing looks, these have much better performances and are highly beneficial to combat hostile NPCs and players and being able to weave through traffic and terrain.

Trivia
Tragacsok
 * In GTA V, some beater vehicles appear to have their radio removed. Despite this, the radio can still be used.
 * For an unknown reason, the Mariachi version of the Tornado can be used in offroad races, despite the fact it is not an offroad vehicle. However, the regular Tornado cannot be used.