GTA 6 cars, keys and fuel: how driving and car theft change from GTA V

In GTA V, every car on the road was yours the moment you opened the door. Grand Theft Auto VI changes that in several small ways that add up, all of them shown or described around the Extended Look on August 27, 2026.

Fuel

Cars have fuel gauges. The showcase shows them; Rockstar has not said how fast a tank empties, what a refuel costs, or whether you can run dry in the middle of a chase. Expect it to matter most on long trips across Leonida, which is roughly three times the size of Red Dead Redemption 2's map by Rockstar's own description, and least in Vice City traffic.

Not every car is yours

Car theft is tiered. Older vehicles can be taken the way they always have been. Newer ones are locked down, and taking them needs a key cloner or other tools that unlock as the story progresses. Rockstar North's Rob Nelson called this stratification when he walked IGN through the game: the point is that a high-end car in the opening hours is a target you have to work toward, not a free ride parked at the kerb. Pulling a driver out is not instant either; there is a struggle, and the showcase suggests stamina plays into it.

Previews also described a phone app that scans a parked car for its value, lock, alarm and tracker before you commit, and the police tracking the vehicle they last saw you in, so a stolen car is a lead until you swap it. See the wanted level guide.

Damage, tyres and evidence

Shooting out a pursuing cruiser's tyres can flip it. Crashes damage the environment rather than just the car. And in one clip Lucia sets fire to a getaway car to destroy evidence, which is the first time the series has treated a vehicle as something the police could trace back to you after the fact.

The roads themselves

Nelson told IGN the streets are narrower and more realistic than GTA V's, so the Los Santos habit of driving at full speed down the middle of a six-lane boulevard does not translate. That matches the three-star advice in the showcase: at a sustained pursuit, get out of the car and into the alleys on foot, because escaping by road needs something very fast or a sports bike.

Everything else on wheels and water

The showcase and the edition pages between them confirm jet skis, kayaks, airboats for the Grassrivers, dirt bikes, street and track racing, car meets, and a Paradise Garage in Watson Bay for Ultimate Edition owners. Purchasable garages were described in previews; Nelson said safehouses work more like Red Dead Redemption 2's camps than the old GTA safehouses.

How the police track your car, and how to shake them