Saints Row: The Third Vehicular Combat Guide

In Saints Row: The Third, vehicles act as effective crowd-control weapons that preserve your ammunition and health. To clear enemy clusters or escape hostile forces in Steelport, rely on high-speed ramming and glancing impacts rather than remaining on foot during open-world encounters.

Impact Combat and Vehicle Selection

Using a vehicle offensively disrupts enemy positioning, scatters targets, and prevents hostile forces from focusing fire on you. Choose your vehicle class based on your current objective and location in Steelport:

Vehicle Class	Primary Strength	Tactical Trade-Off	Best Use Case
Heavy (SUVs, Trucks)	High mass and momentum	Lower top speed and wider turn radius	Ramming barricades and sending smaller cars flying
Light/Fast (Sports Cars)	High agility and acceleration	Low structural durability	Weaving through dense city traffic and evading pursuers

To maximize your vehicle's lifespan while maintaining offensive pressure:

Strike at an Angle: Avoid direct head-on collisions. Hitting enemies or enemy vehicles at a glancing angle delivers lethal force to targets while preserving your own momentum and minimizing structural damage to your vehicle.
Line Up Straightaways: Utilize Steelport's wide avenues to build maximum velocity before driving into hostile groups or stationary targets.
Conserve Firearm Resources: Use vehicular ramming during early-game free-roam or open-world traversal to clear threats without spending valuable ammunition.

Durability, Vehicle Swaps, and Notoriety

Vehicular manslaughter causes structural wear and steadily escalates your notoriety with local law enforcement and rival gangs. Managing vehicle failure points and rising threat levels requires fast adjustments on the road.

Monitor Damage Signals: Watch for engine smoke, flame, or severely compromised handling. These signals indicate your vehicle is near destruction and must be abandoned.
Execute Mid-Pursuit Swaps: Treat every vehicle as disposable. When your ride begins to smoke, target a fresh vehicle in surrounding traffic, stop nearby, and immediately hijack the replacement ride.
Transition to Foot Combat When Trapped: If your vehicle is disabled in heavy traffic or surrounded by high-level gang or police forces, disembark immediately to avoid taking blast damage from an exploding vehicle.