Cartel Cruiser



The Cartel Cruiser is a four-wheel-drive crew cab pickup truck. It is used exclusively by the Colombian Cartel in Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

Design
In general, the Cartel Cruiser is a 4-door pickup truck, with the rear end resembling a 2001-2004 Australian Toyota Hilux Vigo, but featuring frontal styling of a generic 1990s Ford F-Series pickup truck. The Cruiser also features a roll bar in the back, side runners, a blue paintjob, and foglights on the grill. Similar to the Forelli Exsess, Sindacco Argento and Yardie Lobo, it does not have a non-gang variant, but its closest non-gang counterpart is the Patriot. It is one of the only two 4-door pickup trucks in the 3D era

At one point of game development of GTA III, the Cartel Cruiser was known as the Columbia, possibly a reference to the Colombian Cartel's name. The old name is still evidently used in a showcase of the truck at the official Rockstar North website. In the beta, the car was also black.

Performance


With a V8 engine, it is powerful enough to send its all wheel drive system into slides, which is unusual for the GTA III engine. The car is also turbocharged, but suffers from turbo lag, where the car has poor acceleration from a standing start, until the turbo cuts in. This can be heard, when the engine noise becomes louder and more aggressive. At higher revs, it can defeat a Patriot (a similar vehicle) in a straight line drag race. However, its high center of gravity causes the body to roll in corners. Strangely enough, it has the engine sound of a turbocharged vintage engine (the same as BF Injection, Diablo Stallion and Cuban Hermes), which is unusual for a large pickup truck. It is possible that the Cartel Cruiser's engine is customized like a muscle car, but without hood-mounted supercharger.

In GTA Liberty City Stories, the Cartel Cruiser is considerably slower and heavier than in GTA III, but the engine sound has been changed to suit better for a pickup truck and still maintains much of its predecessor's design, engine and accessories, with a noticeable change in the grill mounted spotlights (from white to red). While possessing poor acceleration, it's handling is reasonable, but it's top speed is moderate. The GTA LCS rendition shares the same performance as the Landstalker and the Bobcat.

Locations
GTA III
 * Two of them can be seen and obtained during the mission Bomb Da Base Act II (the only time it will spawn in Portland).
 * In the construction site in Fort Staunton, Staunton Island (only until Grand Theft Aero).
 * In the Cartel mansion in Cedar Grove, Shoreside Vale.
 * Near D-Ice’s phone in Wichita Gardens, Shoreside Vale.
 * Driving around Fort Staunton and Cedar Grove.
 * Six Cartel Cruisers can be found during the mission The Exchange.
 * Can be found as one of the burning vehicles during Firefighter missions.

GTA Liberty City Stories
 * Driving around Cedar Grove, Shoreside Vale.
 * Driving around Francis International Airport, Shoreside Vale.
 * Can be obtained during the Panlantic Land Grab and Love on the Run.

Trivia

 * It has been speculated that in GTA Liberty City Stories, the Cartel Cruiser was meant to have a same engine sound as the Leone Sentinel and the Sentinel XS, but it is changed to the typical engine sound of SUVs like Patriot and the Landstalker, as Leone Sentinel's engine sound are considered too speedy for a pickup truck.


 * The GTA III rendition's performance seems to be reused on the Sandking.


 * The Cartel Cruiser's front design is actually reused for the Yosemite in GTA San Andreas, but not a crew cab.


 * The Cartel Cruiser is apparently inspired from the stereotypical of Latin Americans, which is usually associated with off-road and lowrider cars