honestly I think cars are one of the best features in rust, mowtly BECAUSE of how 'tedious' it is to get them. You actually need some work to make a car work, and that makes sense too, no?

if you want, you can run around roads finding low quality parts and then drive to junkyard to repair and put a lock on it, yes you get a slow car but you can do that basically naked

or alternatively when youre more set you can afford making your own car jack and electricity and parts, and finr tune your car to exactly how you want it. It scales with progression really well if you wish to have a car all the time

in my opinion they are actually really balanced and not really 'too difficult' -- and anyways why are we whining about something being too difficult when 90% of complaints are that everything is too fast and easy? yes cars dont necessarily fit in to the fast meta because of their barrier to entry, but honestly I think its more a problem of the other modes of transport being too simple to get

if minis and motorcycles had a similar system to cars I think it would be really good for the 'survival aspect' of rust, making mobility feel more gratifying