Ghostbusters/Cars and equipment

The following information pertains primarily to the home computer versions of Ghostbusters, although various aspects of these details pertain to the console versions as well.

Cars
Different cars are distinguished by three features besides their appearance: Their cost, their maximum speed, and their cargo capacity.
 * Cost determines how much money you have remaining for essential equipment.
 * The maximum speed will affect how much time it takes to get from one location to another, which ultimately affects how much the Psycho-Kinetic Energy grows while you are driving.
 * Cargo capacity naturally affects how much equipment you can purchase for use throughout the game. Fewer items means you must be more selective about what equipment you purchase.

Compact
Although the Compact car is cheap, it is actually a very difficult car to play the game with, and should only be used by expert players. It's limited capacity and slowest speed present quite a challenge for players by forcing them to make careful decisions about what items to buy, and which routes to travel.
 * Cost: $2000
 * Cargo Capacity: 5 items
 * Top Speed: 75 MPH

1963 Hearse
This is not only the standard car for most beginner players, it resembles the car used by the Ghostbusters in the movie. This car is really the baseline car. 9 spaces for items is more than enough room to buy everything that you could possibly need. 90 MPH is a tad on the slow side, but it's quick enough for the price that you pay.
 * Cost: $4800
 * Cargo Capacity: 9 items
 * Top Speed: 90 MPH

Station Wagon
The Station Wagon is quite a step up from the Hearse, but the price may be too big for new players to swallow. Even though you can store 11 items, with $6000 taken out of your budget, you won't have much money left for anything. There are some items that you can do without, but this car is best saved for the second go around after you beat Gozer once.
 * Cost: $6000
 * Cargo Capacity: 11 items
 * Top Speed: 110 MPH

High Performance
The High Performance car is a budget killer, and is clearly out of reach to new players starting with only $10,000. The only way to purchase it is to finish the game once or twice first, and return with your account number. While it is tremendously faster than any of the other cars, it's storage capacity is between the Compact and the Hearse. However, if you have that kind of money to throw around, you can probably afford that $8000 portable laser containment system to go with it so that you only need one trap.
 * Cost: $15,000
 * Cargo Capacity: 7 items
 * Top Speed: 160 MPH