Modding a Grand Theft Auto game alaways has some custom vehicles at some point. You know, to replace your boring default Kurumas, Coquettes, and Habaneros.
Despite being released over a decade ago in 2008, GTA4 is still a widely appreciated game with a massive playerbase worldwide.
The modding community hasn’t abandoned it either, so it continues to get new custom cars from time to time.
If you’re on the market for new wheels to improve your GTA IV experience, take a look at these amazing custom cars gathered from all across the web.
And before we get down to business, I recommend you get the EPM mod, as most of these custom cars simply won’t run without it.
Buggy-type vehicles have been among my favorites ever since I saw one at the beach for the first time.
There’s something about feeling the wind on your face and the hyper-practical design of these cars that get my blood pumping.
Now Claude can enjoy the same refreshing experience thanks to the Buggy Fireball mod by TheCrosswave. It features a bad-ass exposed engine and very well-done dirt mapping – a must for this off-road beast.
Just be ready to roll downhill a lot if you’re planning to leave the asphalt and explore Liberty City’s frontiers.
This next entry is a bit weird, but I’m sure many of you will find it pretty useful.
Standard Machines isn’t really a mod. But rather a pack containing every one of the original vanilla vehicles, for those times when you forget to back up your game before modding.
Believe me, it happens more often than you think.
It also includes the original Handling.dat and Vehicles.ide files, so there’s no need to re-install the game just because you broke the vehicle system.
Whenever you’re scouring the web for GTA mods, especially the older ones, you’re bound to run into many Russian users and modders.
In a way, we owe them respect for keeping the GTA modding scene alive.
To honor our Russian brothers and sisters, I’ve decided to include the most Russian car I could find.
The Lada brand and its cost-efficient cars are a monument to Russian practicality. They can be seen all over Eastern Europe, especially in post-soviet countries.
The Lada 2109 replaces the vanilla Blista car, so you’ll see it all over Liberty City as well.
You can use any trainer to give yourself a simple speedometer in GTA IV.
Still, considering how much effort we’re putting into updating our cars, there’s no reason to skip over a custom speedometer.
Creator Oinkoink offers us this nifty mod, featuring several different speedometer designs. It includes luxurious ones, minimalist ones, and a couple that are just plain weird.
Their placement is unintrusive, and after a while, you’ll feel as if it were always there.
And truth be told, there’s nothing quite like watching the needle on these things fight its way up as you go pedal to the metal in the streets of Liberty City.
The Nissan Skyline R34 was one of the first cars to bring the performance “tuning” culture from Japan to the Western world.
And its appearance in games like Need for Speed, or films like 2 Fast 2 Furious: Tokyo Drift, definitely helped draw mainstream attention.
This deceptively powerful vehicle is designed to replace the Hakumai.
Its unassuming design looks perfect on the streets of Liberty City, helping you achieve an immersive upgrade of the city’s vehicles.
Among this mod’s best features are the damageable parts, and the fact that you don’t need a high-end gaming rig to handle it (unlike some of our more hardcore entries).
GTA5’s Kuruma is among my favorite vanilla vehicles of any GTA game.
And this Armored version is just too cool to be true.
But don’t be fooled by its good looks. This modded armored machine is 100% functional and will protect you from anything that doesn’t find its way through the peepholes you’re supposed to see through.
It looks terrific in the default sober gray/black color.
Still, this mod provides a high degree of customization – from colors to the type of spoiler on the trunk.
Most of the best San Andreas car mods feature hi-poly models that most low-end PCs won’t handle, despite the game’s relatively basic engine.
A great option if you’re playing on a humbler computer is the Essential Car Pack by creator Jotov24.
The vehicles in this mod were hand-picked by Jotov24 to provide the highest quality possible, without sacrificing performance.
They may not have 100,000 polygons, but they still look incredible.
The variety is nothing to scoff at, either.
If you liked this and you think the ol’ rig can still take some more, then consider The Extended and The Evolved car packs, the slightly more resource-demanding sequels to this mod.
Formula 1 has been one of the most exciting sports to watch for decades.
Now you can take part in it without leaving the comfort of Liberty City.
This Liberty F1 2010 mod by BryanLex brings 24 different cars from the 2010 season to your game, all with distinct handling, acceleration, and max speed.
All the models are intricately detailed, feature working lights, and closely resemble their real-life counterparts.
I’ve always liked the Camaro because it manages to look fresh and powerful, while remaining appropriate for urban use.
I mean, why would you drive a Bugatti Veyron through NYC?
Modders Alex189 and KaLaC bring us this bright green Synergy Edition Camaro, which merges the modern Camaro look we’ve come to love, with a first-generation Camaro design.
You could easily recolor this beast, but the real Camaro Synergy Edition is precisely this shade of green.
So I’d suggest leaving it like that for authenticity’s sake.
If you want high-quality vehicles that look natural in an urban setting like Liberty City, you need to try the NYC Mega Car Pack.
This massive compilation of HQ vehicles is meant to make Liberty City look like 2010’s NYC.
It replaces most vanilla cars with what you’d have seen on the streets back then.
There are Golf Cars for leisurely days, Harley Davidson Fatboy bikes for the bad boys, and there’s even a Mazda 3 so you can re-live the days of stealing your mother’s car.
Among my favorite additions have to be the new law enforcement cars, including a Ford Crown Victoria for the FBI.
The BMW M8 Competition was designed as a sturdy and powerful car that provides the smoothest possible driving experience, even at breakneck speeds.
This elegant and aerodynamic model was ripped from CSR2 and converted to San Andreas by Milcin7, who went as far as to give it working lights and custom handling.
The perfectly-placed blue highlights on a pearl-white body do wonders to give this car an almost ethereal look.
But you can also change them to whatever you want.
But most people can barely tell their Lamborghinis from their Ferraris, and they probably think they’re the only supercar manufacturers worth their salt.
Nothing further from the truth, as we see in this astonishingly attractive machine from the Modenese atelier Pagani.
The Pagani Zonda R is a luxurious supercar with a unique design that favors natural-looking curves over straight lines.
This is partly due to aesthetics, and partly for aerodynamic reasons.
The result is a stylish car unlike any other cruisn’ the streets of Liberty City. And thanks to modder NatT96Report, you can try it out yourself.
The following car pack was made by one of those Russian users who are just as serious about cars as they are about their favorite games like GTA4.
It features almost 200 HQ vehicles that’ll make the traffic in Liberty City look almost out-of-place without a slight graphical improvement for the surrounding urban sprawl.
All of them feature custom handling and working lights, along with damageable parts.
It’s one of the best options if your objective is to have the best-looking hyper-modded GTA IV playthrough.
It’s often the case that, like putting 2 + 2 together, two really cool things can combine to reach a new level of awesomeness.
That’s the case with ExtremeModder191’s Lamborghini Aventador TRON Edition mod, which features enticing neon highlights over a dark body of this Italian mid-engine supercar.
TRON-themed Lambos and other supercars are nothing out of the ordinary. A quick google search will show a lot.
Still, few are as accomplished as this digital devil – and none are quite as easy to get.
The Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Super Trofeo was a special race-oriented edition with an even more aerodynamic model, improved brake cooling, and ten positions for the rear wing.
This model for GTA IV doesn’t actually feature a ten-position rear wing.
But it looks just as breathtaking as its real counterpart.
It features all the details a custom car needs – including custom handling, realistic damage, working doors, and functional lights.
This model was copied from Need for Speed: Rivals by creator Big Bear, and just like in that game, it will look amazing in almost any color.
You can’t make a “best cars” list of any kind without mentioning the Bugatti Veyron.
There are hundreds of mods online offering to add this top-tier supercar of the 2010s to the streets of Liberty City.
Still, few offer the level of detail and polygon count as this model from Forza Motorsport 4 – ported to GTA IV by modder Alex189.
The default design with a black carbon fiber body and red highlights is especially representative of the 16.4 Super Sport, but you can recolor as needed to fit your tastes.
If you’re anything like me, you grew up playing the hell out of Need for Speed.
For most people, that creates a bit of an obsession with aftermarket parts and car tuning – which is why I’m including this Body Kit Final Stock version of the Bugatti Veyron 16.4, an incredible mod with a lot of detail.
Other than the modified skirts and front bumper, this model has a unique coloring scheme that’ll let you experiment much more than our previous entry.
A white body with red highlights is ideal for the flamboyant gangster.
The original model was ported from NFS: Shift 2 to GTA IV by modder Imtaj, who also gave the vehicle custom handling, realistic damage, and fully working lights/doors.
Here’s something you’ll want to get even if none of our custom car mods have convinced you: Killatomate’s Realistic Driving and Flying mod for GTA IV.
Killatomate went one-by-one through all of the 170 default vehicles in the game, and tweaked their handling for a much more realistic and just plain fun experience.
There’s no reason to play without this mod – ever.
If what you’re looking for is lifelike adherence to reality, then the Realistic Car Pack by Ogiogi93 will give you a hand in the motor department.
It replaces 95 vanilla cars and adds an entirely new 23 vehicles, replacing the generic Rockstar-brand automobiles with ones bearing their real insignias.
There’s even a FedEx truck in there, along with the most realistic-looking ambulances I’ve seen so far.
If you haven’t realized yet, I love Lamborghini supercars. And the Aventador is easily among my favorites thanks to its delicate-looking design.
This convertible 50th Anniversary edition is the one I’d like to drive around town myself, if I could. Feeling the wind on my face and enjoying the passerby population’s envious looks… I guess GTA4 is just as good, yeah?
This Aventador is set to replace the Infernus.
And as most of our entries, this mod features working lights, doors, and everything you’d expect from a high-end custom vehicle.
As I’ve written before, I value packs that save modding time and let us get back to gaming.
In the case of cars for GTA IV, I can’t find a better recommendation than the eleventh edition of Taltigolt’s Ultimate Vehicle Pack.
While you take care of installing supercars yourself, this will replace regular cars in Liberty City with the highest-quality custom equivalent available.
This helps give the city a splash of realism, since not everyone in LC can afford a Bugatti or a Lambo.
If all that doesn’t convince you, then try this out just for the fully-functional military jet.
Liberty Walk is one of the most recognizable and respected names in the commercial car tuning industry. And their involvement is about the only way to improve the absolute masterpiece that is the Lamborghini Huracán.
Its name means “hurricane” in Spanish, and that’s exactly what it’d feel like to have the Gallardo’s successor drive by you at high speeds.
Thanks to Team Extreme, who ported this from CSR2, you can choose to be the one doing the driving – at least within Liberty City.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
