The business of the Import/Export DLC is part of the CEO businesses introduced by Rockstar Games with the “Finance and Felony” DLC released in June 2016. To effectively start stealing and exporting vehicles, you first need to become a CEO and buy an office in Los Santos.

Let’s assume that you haven’t bought an office before and you have to start from scrap. The best option is to go with the cheapest option because there is absolutely no difference between the offices apart from location.

So buy the Maze Bank West office, leave the default décor, choose the Assistant you want, the name you prefer, avoid both the gun locker and the safe, because the safe is useless while the gun locker is useful if you want to remove some weapons from your inventory and get yourself a custom loadout.

The last option is the Accommodation, again something that you can honestly avoid if you already own a high-end apartment. Especially, because you can’t start a heist from your office.

Inside Your New GTA CEO Office

With your new brand office, you can now start working on two different businesses.

You’ll have to start buying and selling crates and import/export vehicles. Like the CEO missions and the Bikers businesses, the import/export dealings are only available to players who are in a public session.

You’ll make money through stealing and selling vehicles and requires a constant activity from the player. You have to start the mission, be the one who steals the vehicle and brings it back to your warehouse and you also are the one who starts and completes a selling mission.

That is the general gist of the business.

Chose Your Los Santos Warehouse

To begin your adventure in the import/export world go to your computer inside the CEO office. Then buy a warehouse to stock the vehicles you’re going to steal.

There are a total of nine warehouses, each of them is able to hold a maximum of 40 vehicles and is customizable in the same way with the only difference being price and location.

The cheapest warehouse is located in La Mesa and costs $1,500,000, while the most expensive one instead costs $2,850,000 and is located in Murrieta Heights.

In both cases, we’re considering the prices with the basic personalization. Other than price and location, the main difference between these warehouses is “accessibility”.

The most expensive warehouse is located near the biggest junction in the Los Santos highway system, surrounded by low buildings to ease up the job with the Cargobob, which will allow you to avoid damaging your vehicle.

Tall buildings and other structures instead surround the cheapest warehouse, the one in La Mesa. It also features small access to reach the building placed on a not well-paved street. Are all these differences worth $1,350,000? Just buy the cheapest warehouse for now.

Once you choose your warehouse, you are good to go. In fact, differently, from both the Finance and Felony DLC and the Bikers DLC, your warehouse doesn’t need any kind of upgrade.

No new staff members, better equipment or cameras to upgrade security. And speaking of security, this warehouse cannot be robbed or seized, so you fill it up without worrying.

So now that you have your office and your warehouse you’re ready to fire up your new business. Your assistant already explained to you how this business works, but let us summed that up: steal the vehicle, don’t damage it, park it inside the warehouse and then sell it. Again, don’t damage it.

Import/Export Vehicle Cargo Missions???

When you decide to import a vehicle, you’ll have to complete a small mission that will allow you to put your hands on the vehicle needed. There is a variety of almost twenty missions, each of those with other variants.

For example, the car could be already robbed by an NPC followed by a police car, or, talking about police, placed in the middle of a crime scene. You may need to rob it from a race track by shooting at the driver or beat a time trial to win the pink slip and the vehicle itself.

The car can be placed inside a car meet or protagonist of a stunt. You may need to tail a guy to the vehicle, find it after looking at a picture, or kill a bunch of guys to find an electronic key that will allow you to turn on the engine.

There’s even a mission where you just need to reach the car, take it and drive it to the warehouse without worrying at all about enemies, but watch out because sometimes when the job looks too easy, things may get complicated. Missions can also vary by location, a number of enemies and more.

Stealing Cars from Other Players & Watch Your Back

If you have guts, you can also steal vehicles from other players, as soon as your enemy is near or inside the cargo vehicle, you can kill him and steal the car.

If you do this, you have two different options: take it to the nearest police station for a fixed payout of $5,000 or take it back to your personal warehouse in order to be able to sell it yourself later. Obviously, make a lot more money.

Even if this evolution of the other player involvement is in some way positive, others already developed new ways to let you lose your stuff. For example, like killing you near the entrance of your warehouse, which might be also their warehouse, to get immediately get inside the vehicle and bring it inside the building while you’re still struggling to spawn and reach your car. And obviously, these suckers will go off the radar first and don’t get out of the warehouse after.

So, if you start seeing strange things, see people go off the radar in the middle of the highway you’re running on, be prepare for a fight or just hope for the best, like ending in a public “solo” session.

Especially because if someone kills you near your warehouse and you haven’t spawned yet, your car will catch on fire as soon as the other player opens the door of your car.

And yes, you can also get your car stolen will you’re exporting a vehicle. The other player will be able to deliver it to their warehouse as long as they don’t already have that vehicle and license plate.

You Really Need a CargoBob for Import/Export 

Listen, most of the previously mentioned missions can become easier if you are a proud owner of a Cargobob. Sometimes a Cargobob can also allow you to give the finger to other non-cargobob owning losers in your session.

The DLC has a single kind of mission where using the cargobob is required, but if you bought the helicopter in the past, it definitely may come in handy for these missions.

You can ask your assistant to spawn it on the roof of your office, reach the vehicle, grab it with the hook and fly back to the warehouse delivering your vehicle in less time and avoiding most of the time spend on enemies backup, police and other players who try to kill you in order to steal your vehicle.

Sure, sometimes your cargobob may be too damaged to complete another job, but if this is the case, drop it and ask for another one. If instead, the helicopter is still in good condition, land it manually on the roof of your office, get inside, start another mission and go back on the roof to find your Cargobob parked where you have left it.

If you haven’t bought one yet, the cost may scare you because it’s $1.7M. I know it’s a lot, but if you start being good in catching vehicle on the go, it could become your best investment.

Details of Job You Should Know Before Startrting Import/Export Business

How exactly does the import/export system work? Let’s make an example step-by-step. To import a vehicle you need to reach your office, log in to the network, select “vehicle cargo” and then click on “source vehicle.” Once done, SecuroServ will send you the details of the vehicle you have to reach, steal and take it to the warehouse.

During the trip, your vehicle could be damaged. As soon as the vehicle will be taken inside the warehouse, you’ll pay the amount of damage. Then you’ll be able to see your vehicle inside the warehouse as a brand new car.

Now that the import part has been done, it’s time make some money, so log in to the computer inside the warehouse, select the vehicle and click on export. Just keep in mind that this vehicle can be exported for a maximum amount of $ 37,500. If you pay upfront for some modifications will cost you a total of $ 7,500.

With the modifications applied, you’ll be aboard the vehicle again with the objective to deliver it to the customer. Take it to the destination, watch out for enemies, especially NPCs, and deliver the car to the customer to earn your money.

And speaking of enemies, don’t waste your time killing enemies and destroying helicopters because as soon as one enemy is killed, another one will be spawned and the same goes with helicopters.

So, how much does this exactly cost and what is the real profit? You haven’t paid money for obtaining the info about the car, but the car was damaged when taken to the warehouse.

When selling, you choose the most profitable option, but that cost you some money too. With good luck, the car wasn’t damaged at all during the trip from the warehouse to the customer, so no other expenses. For example, if my total amount of money spent is $ 11,856, while the total amount of money gained is instead $ 37,500.

The result of costs and revenues gives you an actual profit of a little more than $ 25,644. All of this is done in, let’s say, from 15 to 20 minutes.

But is this the maximum amount of money you can do exporting vehicles in this DLC? No, there’s definitely more. Let’s start by saying that the vehicles you’ll import will be of three different kinds of ranges: Standard range, mid-range, and top range. Obviously better the range, the better the payout you’ll receive. For example, a standard range vehicle can be sold, as we saw previously, for a maximum commission of $ 37,500, but for a top range vehicle, the commission will raise up to $ 100,000.

But how can your commission change when exporting a vehicle? Easy, when you choose to export you’ll have three different options: You can sell to a private customer who won’t ask you for anything at all for the 100% of the commission.

To a showroom who will ask for some standard modifications and pink slips – both will lower down your commission by a little less than 15%. Or to a specialist dealer who will ask for high-end modifications, lowering down your commission 20%. In the table shown over here, you can see the money you’ll gain and the money you eventually need to spend.

The Specialist Dealer is a Must for All Car Sales In GTA

Differently, from the game, we already subtracted the cost, which is the money in red. But why do you have to spend money?

Well, welcome to the fantastic world of exporting stolen vehicles! What am I doing with my life? When you choose to export a vehicle you’ll have three different options: Private, Showroom and Specialist Dealer.

Selling your vehicle to a private normally means taking it to a not so far location in less than 15 minutes and most of the times, with no enemies on your back and the delivery, will take less than 5 minutes.

So, the first option it’s a pretty safe way to export the car gaining half of the most money you can make, but with the almost certain to receive the full commission.

If you choose to raise up the risk, you need to spend a little bit of money and export the vehicle to a showroom. The money you have to spend is necessary to remove the tracker, change the plates, colors and sometimes make other small changes in the vehicle.

Once you’re done with the modification, you’re good to go, but this option always requires a mid-stop between the warehouse and buyer in order to recover the falsified documents that allow the showroom to legally resell the vehicle.

As soon as you collected the documents, you need to get back in the car and take it to the buyer. Enemies are a possibility with this option.

The last option is the specialist dealer. In order to gain the maximum amount of money possible, you’ll need to spend a fixed quota of $ 20,000 to remove the tracker, change the plate, colors, add the performance upgrades, change wheels and body parts.

The buyer doesn’t mind what these things are changed to, so don’t waste time thinking about what the buyer would like, just change all the things required and do it in the five minutes given. With all the changes done, you have to take the vehicle to the dealer who has normally placed far away from your starting location.

Also, rarely you’ll be lucky enough to bring the car in one piece to the destination, but most of the times, choosing this options means you’ll be facing a couple of enemy cars with high speed, great driving abilities and overpowered aim even at high speed. Those NPCs, don’t get me started on those pricks.

Depending on the numbers of vehicles sold, you’ll face a different cooldown before you’ll be able to do a new exporting mission. If you sold only one vehicle, the cooldown will be 20 minutes, 30 if you sell two vehicles, 40 if you sell three vehicles, and if you export four vehicles in a single mission, you’ll face a 50 minutes cooldown.

And we’re talking about in-game time here, not the real life time. If you quit the game your cooldown timer will pause and then resume as soon as you enter GTA Online again.

So, in terms of money, what does this mean? Considering that an exporting mission cannot be longer than 15 minutes, but normally is not over 5 minutes.

Theoretically, you may be able to earn up to $ 320,000 per hour by filling up your warehouse and exporting four vehicles in a single mission every hour. To do so by the way, you need more associates because you can export a maximum of four cars only if you have three associates in your organization.

The Dark Side of the Import and Export Business

And here comes the sore spot of this DLC, that in some kind of way was also the sore spot of the Finance and Felony DLC. We’re talking about the associates’ payouts.

When it comes to exporting vehicles, the CEO is the only one who makes money because all associates receive a wage every 15 minutes. If a mission is completed with success the payout will be raised by $ 500 and paid as a bonus.

Is it fair?

Well, as we already said when we had the opportunity six months ago, technically it is considering that the CEO is the one who spends the money without receiving a regular wage.

The CEO paid for the warehouse, abilities and the vehicles available through the interaction menu.

He is the one who paid the damages both when the vehicle is taken inside the warehouse and when the car is exported, and most important, he’s the one who takes the risk in losing everything, because in a four-car exporting mission, if all vehicles blew up, the associates lose $ 250, but the CEO instead loses $ 400,000.

So, technically, considering that in an hour an associate can earn a little more than $ 40,000 while the CEO could earn a maximum of $ 320,000, the payouts are virtually respectable, but let’s be honest, no one is happy to work for $40,000 if your boss earns almost ten times that.

You Must Collect Car Collections in I.E. Business

There’s a way that both the CEO and the associates can work together in the right way, both with a good payout to look forward to and that way is called “car collections”.

When you decide to export a vehicle, you should first check the tab “Collection” because this tab shows you the possibility to export a bunch of specific vehicles collecting the full commission, without spending money on modifications and also earning a bonus called “collection bonus” of $ 50,000, $ 35,000 or $ 20,000.

The nicest thing about the collection bonus is that everyone receives it, not just the CEO, but all the members of the organization. Technically, if you have a bunch of trusted friends, the “car collections” may be the right way to think about this business.

Simply blow up the vehicles that aren’t part of a collection to avoid filling your garage with garbage. The same tactic can be used even if you like to play solo. Simply keep blowing up vehicles that aren’t top class and that won’t allow you to earn the maximum amount of money while exporting.

If instead, you want to keep your success rate at the maximum value possible, then change session when you see that the vehicle given is not the one you wanted.

Don’t Buy GTA Special Vehicles Right Away

Before closing, allow us to spend a word on the special cargo vehicles. These vehicles are tied to special missions that will be unlocked in the game every four vehicles that you’ll take inside the warehouse.

These vehicles can also be immediately bought in game at a higher price spending more than $ 18M, but if you wait for the mission and complete it as a CEO, you’ll gain access to a secondary price, a discounted one and all discounted prices together will allow you to save a total of $ 4.5M.

Anyway, you don’t need to buy everything and there’s no rush in having everything because none of these are limited contents.

Also, probably, in the next months most of these vehicles will receive a second discount during the special weekend events, so take your time. If you want them all, now, you’ll need now more than $ 13M and that’s not an easy number to cover in short times with this or other businesses.

& Finally…

So, in short, making money with this DLC is pretty easy. steal and sell, that’s all. There aren’t mountains of money coming in your pocket and the maximum payout possible is lower compared to the other businesses like contraband and the Bikers with the last one that is still the best way to make money in the game.

The Import/Export is probably the kind of business meant for those players who like to play solo, both in recovering and selling the merchandise, obviously playing solo, but with the risk given by a public lobby.

If you already have an office, then spending $1.5M in a warehouse is something that you’ll want to do. You’ll be able to play some nice missions, unlock eight crazy vehicles at a lower price and have a lot of fun with one of the main aspects of Grand Theft Auto Online.

If you’re worried about covering the cost, just think about that you’ll need to sell around 20 top tier vehicles to repay the warehouse and if you also have to buy the office, add another 15 cars. From there, it’s all profit and your warehouse can store up to 40 vehicles. So, maybe it’s time to become a CEO for everyone.