In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, there are 37 save points (the most in any Grand Theft Auto game) that Carl Johnson can acquire. These are divided into story save points, which are granted to Carl as he progresses through the storyline, and safe houses, which are save points with added amenities that Carl may purchase after unlocking them by completing certain missions. All safe houses are needed for 100% completion of the the game (contributing 15% of the total), costing a total of $879,000.
There are eight main save points and safehouses that are made available to Carl as he completes missions in the game's story. All are free of charge with one exception. These may or may not be inside an enclosed structure, and most consist of no more than a save icon and, in certain safe points, a usable garage. Only the Johnson House has a wardrobe. Although the player can choose to make any safehouse a "home base" during various chapters of the game, the game storyline will generally place these save points as key "home base" locations, particularly the Johnson House, Doherty Garage and the Abandoned AC Tower.
There are 29 other safehouses scattered around the state that are unlocked at various points in the story, including five hotel suites. These safehouses are purchasable properties containing a save icon as well as a wardrobe, which distinguishes them from save points. Safehouses may also contain usable garages, capable of storing up to four vehicles. It is noteworthy that hotel suites do not include any garage.
Saving the game in a safehouse with a garage attached to it will often remove custom graphic paint jobs from Loco Lo Co. or Wheel Arch Angels. It is best to keep these vehicles in a garage Carl won't save at to prevent this from happening. Custom Color paint, two-tone, interiors, and vinyl roofs, however, will stay intact even when saving at that garage. Body modifications and rims also remain untouched.
A glitch exists where vehicles vanish. This happens if the player has stored in a garage, for example, a vehicle that can't be modified with a vehicle that can be modified only at Wheel Arch Angels and one of the vehicles will disappear. To prevent this from happening store in garages vehicles of the same type: those that can't be tuned, those that can be tuned only at Transfender, lowriders and tuners.
When to storing and saving the NRG-500 from the NRG-500 Challenge in a garage, attempting to replay the challenge will cause the previous NRG-500 you stored to disappear from the garage.
Trivia[]
When a safehouse's garage reaches its limit of vehicles, the player can open the garage door by approaching it on foot. If they are quick enough, they can return to their vehicle and drive it inside the garage before the door closes. The vehicle will be saved, but may be difficult to retrieve if too many vehicles are stored in the garage. Sometimes one of the saved vehicles will disappear when over the limit.