just to add to my previous post:

the plane crashes sep 1910 and from oct 1910 my small-engined cars do not sell a unit.


also to reply to some people's questions about research, it all has to do with the year, i.e. at the early stages of the game you cannot develop too powerful motors/chasses.

some combinations that work are:
2 cylinder 10 hp engine + chassis 10 hp
4 cylinder 25 hp engine + chassis 25 hp
6 cylinder 50 hp engine + chassis 50 hp

the engines and the chasses can be combined with different car bodies i.e. open/soft top/hard top or even different categories as small/medium/large, so these three combinations have given me 7+ cars

hope these guidelines help.

Well Pano I had the same problem. I don't really know what's the case but if you wait until early 1912 then the small cars start selling like crazy again! That is until the first world war starts :not_ok:

Another thing to do is have a look at the historic cars in the library. It is very helpfull on which car design sells more each time period.

thank you vicious for your prompt reply - really appreciated!

however i seriously wanted to delete the game as i found it extremely unrealistic to have average sales of 200 units per model per month, while having just released a new small car (i.e. old medium-ranged engine, old medium-ranged chassis, new small-ranged car body) that sells 500+ units per month and then in less than a year suddenly drops to 0.

anyway, just wanted to rant a bit!

I don't think its unrealistic at all. You need to keep on top of the market. Older models won't be as popular. A simple change of body shape can re-stimulate demand again. I've found that the market is very price sensitive and will keep buying older stuff if you price it right. I'm currently selling 3 premium models (with same chassis & engine, but different bodies) for around $6300 each. To use up a stockpile of engines & chassis from previous models, I'm selling them in a small car configuration for under $3000. Each month I am building new factories because I can't keep up with demand. January 1907 (the most recent month) saw a $2.9 million turnover of which over $2 million is profit. I don't know if that's good, but it would be great if that money was really in my account. LOL

One question I have: How do you find out information about what your competitors are doing? I'd like to know what they're selling and at what price, but can't figure out where to get this information. It will help keep on top of the market.

unfortunately i don't think you can learn anything about competition, par the annual event where you just get the percentage growth of competitors turnover.

i was (and still am) dissapointed with the game's engine, as i used a new body for older parts and witnessed a great demand for it, outselling all my other models put together. the demand keeps rising for a few months then after the airplane accident it suddenly drops to 0, even if i price the models at $200 (to clear my stock), whereas the previous month its price was $3000 and discovered that it could have sold even in the $6000 region.

anyway, enough with my hurt ego!

my car range (before that dreaded month) had one small car @3,000, one medium car @2,000 and three large cars @7,000, 9,000, 12,000. one nice thing i noticed was the interrelation between car prices as the sales of one car could alienate the sales of another car if prices were close enough.

and some advice: do always built the largest factory available as you will quickly end up with no available land space to built otherwise (i was 3/4 full and rapidly building more). also keep a couple of spares too, that can quickly be adjusted to suit different parts demand that may arise. finally, (for the cheeky amongst you) if a building is destroyed by fire, just load that round again - the fire incident is random and will not repeat!

would love to hear more tips from you!

you press escape to exit test drive also i can not get the car moving at all is there a way to get the keyboard to be the driving controls all i do is sipn around with the mouse

left mouse button - accelerate
right mouse button - brake
mouse - steering
space - one gear up
enter - one gear down

help. i cant start the game!!!!!!.

You should be more specific on your problem. You cannot run the game under Windows XP. You have to use dosbox. You can find it at the utilities section of this site along with its manual. You may also use VDMS but i had sound problems with that one.

I hope that was of help....

It doesn't work for me either. I click the start icon and the DOS screen comes up for a second, then disappears. The end.