What LS Customs Does, in One Visit
Los Santos Customs is GTA Online's all-purpose workshop: drive almost any personal vehicle in, and you can raise its performance, change how it looks, repair it, insure it and even sell it, all from one menu.
There are four LS Customs garages across the map, plus Beeker's Garage in Paleto Bay offering the same service. A full performance build on one car typically runs to roughly GTA$350,000–$500,000 at guide estimates, depending on the vehicle.
This guide walks the menu in the order a sensible build uses it: performance first, looks second, paperwork last. Prices below are the standard guide figures at the time of writing and can vary a little by vehicle class.
Key Takeaways
- Four LS Customs locations — Burton, La Mesa, Los Santos International Airport and Harmony — plus Beeker's Garage in Paleto Bay, all with identical services.
- Top performance parts: 100% armor GTA$50,000, Level 4 engine GTA$33,500, turbo tuning GTA$50,000 on most cars.
- Armor adds durability with no speed or handling penalty — the oldest myth in the game is wrong.
- Bulletproof tires cost GTA$25,000 and unlock at Rank 20; many parts also unlock by winning races, not just by ranking up.
- Specialist work lives elsewhere: Benny's handles lowrider conversions, and weaponized vehicles need property workshops.
1. Where to Find LS Customs
The four garages sit in Burton on Carcer Way, La Mesa on Popular Street, beside Los Santos International Airport on Greenwich Parkway, and at Harmony on Route 68 in Blaine County. They are marked on the map by a spray-can icon.
Beeker's Garage in Paleto Bay is the fifth option and the only difference is geography — the menu, prices and unlocks are the same. Pick whichever is closest; there is no discount or bonus tied to a particular shop.
Drive in slowly and the shutter opens automatically. Inside, the menu is grouped into categories, and every change previews on your car in real time before you pay, so you can back out of anything that looks wrong.
The shops never close, and there is a sixth place to do much of the same work: the mod shop inside the LS Car Meet building, which runs the LS Customs menu in a social space where other players are doing the same thing. The prices and categories match the street garages.
2. Performance Upgrades, Category by Category
Armor comes in five steps from 20% to 100%, priced at roughly GTA$7,500, GTA$12,000, GTA$20,000, GTA$35,000 and GTA$50,000. Fit the best you can afford: armor only adds damage resistance, and it carries no weight, speed or handling penalty at all.
Engine tuning is sold as EMS upgrades up to Level 4 at around GTA$33,500 for the top step. Race brakes run to roughly GTA$35,000, race transmission to roughly GTA$40,000, and turbo tuning is a flat GTA$50,000 on most cars that accept it.
Suspension is the cheap surprise — even the top competition setup is only around GTA$4,400 on many cars. A fitted spoiler is not just cosmetic either: it adds a genuine traction bonus, which is why race builds always wear one.
Unlocks arrive two ways. Some parts are gated by rank, while performance parts also open up as you win races in GTA Online's race modes. If a category is locked, racing — not grinding rank alone — is usually the faster key.
On a budget, build in priority order: armor first, because survival is free of trade-offs, then the top engine step and turbo for pace, then brakes and transmission. Bulletproof tires jump the queue on any car you drive in public sessions. Paint and wheels can wait — they change nothing about how the car drives.
3. Looks: Resprays, Wheels, Tires and Plates
Resprays are grouped into Classic, Matte, Metallic and Pearlescent finishes, plus Crew colours for members of a Social Club crew. Metallic with a pearlescent layered over it is how most two-tone show cars are built.
Wheels split into style families with their own price ladders, and tires carry three genuinely useful options. Custom tires with lettering unlock at Rank 7, tire smoke colours unlock across the ranks, and bulletproof tires cost GTA$25,000 from Rank 20 — fit them on anything you drive in free mode.
Number plates are part of the build too: the shop fits standard plate styles, and a personal plate made in the plate creator finishes the car properly. Our walkthrough of the GTA Online license plate creator covers how to make one.
The finishing menu is deeper than most players expect: window tints from Light Smoke to Limo, xenon headlights, neon light kits and coloured headlight options on supported cars. None of it changes performance, but at night in a car meet it is most of what anyone sees of your build.
For inspiration, the builds in our guide to GTA Online themed cars show what the respray and wheel menus can do when a look is planned before a single dollar is spent.
4. The Practical Stuff: Repairs, Cover and Selling
LS Customs repairs damage for a modest fee, and it is also where a street car becomes properly yours. Fitting a tracker makes a stolen car your personal vehicle, and adding full loss and theft cover means a destroyed car comes back with a phone call and an excess payment instead of vanishing for good.
The shop buys cars as well as modifying them. One eligible car can be sold per in-game day, and a purchased personal vehicle resells for 60% of its purchase price plus 50% of what you spent modifying it — which is why heavy spending on a car you plan to sell is money thrown away.
Repairs follow the damage: a scratched car costs little to straighten out, a wreck costs more, and a destroyed insured vehicle is not a workshop job at all — it comes back through a Mors Mutual claim. Fitting the insurance before the car ever gets hurt is the whole point of buying it here.
A freshly stolen ordinary street car can also be sold here as-is for a modest sum — a legitimate trickle of early-game cash. The game refuses the valuable street cars outright, which is the same "too hot to handle" rule that keeps them out of the modification menu.
Our step-by-step on how to sell cars in GTA Online covers eligibility and the daily limit in detail. And before you build anything, check the car is worth building: our rankings of the best cars in GTA Online and the fastest cars in GTA Online separate the keepers from the money pits.
5. What LS Customs Cannot Do
Some vehicles are refused outright: emergency vehicles, Pegasus vehicles and certain high-value street cars cannot be modified or sold there. Weaponized vehicles are the bigger limit — LS Customs handles their basic look and performance, but their weapons and military hardware belong to specialist workshops.
Benny's Original Motor Works in Strawberry is the famous specialist: it converts a set list of cars into lowriders and customs with interiors, hydraulics and far deeper cosmetic menus than LS Customs offers. That is a workshop tour of its own, and it deserves one rather than a paragraph here.
On the current-generation versions, Hao's Special Works inside the LS Car Meet goes the other direction — elite performance conversions for eligible cars, at conversion prices that can run into the millions. Arena, Agency, Avenger and Mobile Operations Center workshops each cover their own vehicle lists as well.
The simple rule: LS Customs first for almost everything, a specialist only when the menu in front of you does not list what you need.
Two more boundaries are worth knowing. Motorcycles are welcome — the full menu applies to bikes, and many riders do their whole build here. Aircraft are not: planes and helicopters are modified in a hangar's own workshop, and boats have no equivalent customization shop at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many LS Customs locations are there?
Four: Burton, La Mesa, Los Santos International Airport and Harmony. Beeker's Garage in Paleto Bay offers the identical service, making five places to modify a car in total.
How much does it cost to fully upgrade a car?
Guide estimates put a complete build at roughly GTA$350,000 to GTA$500,000 for most cars, covering top performance parts, bulletproof tires and a respray. Exotic respray and wheel choices can push it higher.
Does armor make my car slower?
No. Armor upgrades add damage resistance only, with no effect on top speed, acceleration or handling. It is the one upgrade with no trade-off, so buy the highest level you can afford.
How much are bulletproof tires and when do they unlock?
Bulletproof tires cost GTA$25,000 and unlock at Rank 20. They are one of the best-value purchases in the game for any vehicle you drive in public sessions.
Why are some upgrades locked in the menu?
Performance parts unlock through a mix of rank and race wins. Winning races in GTA Online's race modes opens higher engine, brake and transmission levels, so a locked category usually means more racing, not more grinding elsewhere.
Can I sell any car at LS Customs?
No. You can sell one eligible car per in-game day. Personal vehicles you bought resell for 60% of their purchase price plus half their modification value, while some vehicles — including high-value street cars and anything Pegasus-delivered — cannot be sold there at all.
What do a tracker and insurance actually do?
A tracker turns a street car into your personal vehicle so it can be stored and retrieved. Insurance means a destroyed vehicle is replaced through Mors Mutual for an excess fee instead of being lost permanently.
Does a spoiler change how a car drives?
Yes. A fitted spoiler adds a real traction bonus, improving grip. It is a performance part disguised as a cosmetic one, and race builds use it for exactly that reason.
Is Beeker's Garage different from LS Customs?
Only in location. Beeker's in Paleto Bay runs the same menu at the same prices with the same unlock rules. Use whichever shop is nearest when you need one.
Can LS Customs modify weaponized vehicles?
Partly. It can handle standard performance and cosmetic work on many of them, but weapon systems and military upgrades are fitted in specialist workshops such as the Mobile Operations Center, Avenger or Arena Workshop.
Wrapping Up
LS Customs is still the first stop for almost every car in GTA Online: honest performance parts, deep resprays, bulletproof tires and the tracker and insurance that make a car truly yours. Build performance first, looks second, and save the specialists — Benny's for lowriders, Hao's for elite conversions — for the cars that genuinely need them.
