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Add custom cars to your FiveM server

Every car on a FiveM server is a resource: the model files under stream/, a few metas, and an fxmanifest that tells the game what each meta is. Get those right and any car works. Here is what a car needs, where to get one, how to change it and how to keep a hundred of them from slowing the server down.

What a FiveM car is made of

A car is a folder. The models go under stream/, the metas sit next to fxmanifest.lua, and the manifest registers every meta by its type. FiveM streams anything in stream/ on its own; the metas are the part people get wrong.

mycar/
  fxmanifest.lua
  vehicles.meta        VEHICLE_METADATA_FILE
  carvariations.meta   VEHICLE_VARIATION_FILE
  carcols.meta         CARCOLS_FILE
  handling.meta        HANDLING_FILE
  stream/
    mycar.yft          the body
    mycar_hi.yft       the close-up body
    mycar.ytd          its textures

vehicles.meta names the car and its class, handling.meta decides how it drives, carvariations.meta lists its colours, liveries and extras, and carcols.meta holds mod kits and sirens. A meta registered under the wrong type is not an error you will see: the car just spawns without textures, or does not spawn at all.

fx_version 'cerulean'
game 'gta5'

files { ‘*.meta’ }


data_file ‘HANDLING_FILE’          ‘handling.meta’
data_file ‘VEHICLE_METADATA_FILE’  ‘vehicles.meta’
data_file ‘CARCOLS_FILE’           ‘carcols.meta’
data_file ‘VEHICLE_VARIATION_FILE’ ‘carvariations.meta’

Where cars come from

FiveM resources. Cars sold on Tebex or shared on the Cfx.re forum usually ship ready: drop the folder in and ensure it. If it is encrypted (escrow), you can run it but not open or edit it.

Single-player add-ons. Most cars on GTA5-Mods are made for single player and ship as a dlc.rpf for dlcpacks. FiveM never reads that. Paste the mod page into the Add-on Car Importer and you get the same car back as a FiveM resource, with the metas sorted and the manifest written. It is free on any plan.

Replace mods. Some of the best-looking cars ship as a replacement for a vanilla car. On a server that removes the vanilla car for everyone, so the importer offers to rename it into an add-on instead.

The licence on the mod page still applies. Converting a car does not give you the right to sell it or put it on a public server if the author says no.

Changing a car

Most server owners do not want a car exactly as it shipped. The Vehicle Editor opens an unlocked car in the browser and exports a new resource with your changes, so you do not need ZModeler, CodeWalker or Windows:

  • Debadge: click a badge to remove it, and Fill / Flush closes the hole it leaves in the paint.
  • Police lights: lightbars and LED strips on GTA's own siren system, on E, without ELS.
  • Rims and parts: swap wheels, add parts, or import your own model as GLB, FBX, OBJ or ZModeler .z3d.
  • Door logos, carbon, starlight roof and the carcols per light.

For liveries there is the Livery Mapper, which lays the body out as a template you can paint even on a car that never had a livery slot. A plate design is made in the Plate Creator.

Many cars in one resource

Fifty cars as fifty resources works, but it is slow to manage. Merging them into one pack is where things break: two cars with the same model name, the same streamed file, the same siren slot or the same mod kit id fight each other, and the loser silently loses.

The Server pack in the Vehicle Editor takes 2 to 30 of your finished exports and builds one resource. Each car gets its own folder under stream/, the manifests are merged, clashing siren slots and kit ids are moved to free numbers, and a real conflict (two different cars with one model name) stops the build with a message instead of shipping a broken pack. Building a pack is free.

Keep them light

Cars hurt a server through their textures, not their models. A single add-on often carries a 4K paint sheet, a 4K dirt map and an interior nobody looks at, and every player who sees that car loads all of it. Enough of them together and players get texture loss: roads and buildings going blurry while cars stay sharp.

The Vehicle Optimiser measures what each car costs and shrinks the textures that are bigger than they need to be, without touching the model. If the server console warns about oversized assets, start there.

Install and spawn

  1. Put the car folder (or the pack) in your server's resources.
  2. Add ensure mycar to server.cfg.
  3. Restart the server, or run refresh and ensure mycar from the console.
  4. Spawn it by its model name, for example /car mycar.

If the car does not appear, check the server console for the resource first, then the manifest's data_file lines, then whether the .ytd made it into stream/.

Frequently asked

What is the difference between an add-on and a replace car?

An add-on car gets its own spawn name and sits next to the vanilla cars. A replace car overwrites a vanilla model such as adder or sultan, so that car is gone for every player on the server. Add-on is almost always what you want.

How do I spawn a car after I install it?

Use its model name, the modelName in vehicles.meta, which is usually the name of the .yft file. Most admin menus and the /car command take that name.

Can I put many cars in one resource?

Yes. One resource can stream many cars as long as no two of them share a model name, a streamed file name, a siren slot or a mod kit id. The Server pack in the Vehicle Editor merges your exports and fixes those clashes for you.

Why is my car invisible or untextured?

Usually a missing or misnamed .ytd, a meta registered under the wrong data_file type, or a car that is over the texture budget. Check the manifest first, then the texture sizes.

Can I use cars from GTA5-Mods?

Yes, as long as the author allows it. Single-player add-ons ship as a dlc.rpf, so they have to be unpacked into a FiveM resource first. The Add-on Car Importer does that from the mod page link.

Try it free

Create a free account, join the Discord for your credits, and build your first asset in minutes.

Open the Vehicle EditorCreate free account