Every car has a signature ability in Saints Row (2022). Cars can jump, launch ejector seats, gain unlimited boost or generate spiked wheels to slice through enemy vehicles like paper. All of these abilities are useful, but you’ll have to complete car challenges before you can unlock them. That’s the tricky part. Some car challenges don’t really explain how to do what they’re asking — if you don’t know how to do a barrel roll, the game really never explains this. And if you’re very early in the game, many of these challenges are flat-out impossible until you unlock a story upgrade that makes pulling off cool tricks a whole lot easier. Below we’ll explain how to complete some of the trickiest car challenges.
Some of the car challenges are really easy — Near Miss? Just drive next to cars. They don’t even have to be moving. You can drive past parked cars and it still counts toward your Near Miss score. Handy!
More Saints Row (2022) guides:
5 Hilariously Weird Unlockables To Get First | 10 Little Details, Controls & Interactions | All Easter Eggs Guide | How To Make Money Early | All Secret Vehicles & Lost Wheel Collectible Locations | Best Car & Helicopter Locations | Gold Garbage Truck Location | Gargantua Monster Truck Location | How To Get A Tank | All Hidden History Locations | Game-Breaking Bug Fix | All Shooting Gallery Locations | All Fast Travel Landmark Locations | Secret Ending Guide
All Collectibles | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
All Discovery Locations | 100% Completion Map
How To Complete Car Challenges | Vehicle Upgrade Guide
To upgrade cars and unlock their special ability — like the Fer de Lance Jump signature ability — you’ll need to complete tricky challenges like complete Barrel Rolls. There are other tricky challenges like Double Back Flips that also require a whole lot of time in the air. Let’s cover these two tricky challenges first.
- How To Complete Barrel Roll / Double Back Flip Car Challenges:
- Before you can do this step, complete JR’s Missions and unlock JR’s Garage to gain improved air-handling on all vehicles. If you haven’t done this story quest yet, it is absolutely required to complete any tricky jump challenge.
- Once you complete the mission, travel to the parking lot underneath the giant Santo Ileso sign in Monte Vista — check the location on the map.
- How To Barrel Roll: The parking lot gives you plenty of room to jump. To barrel roll, hold [XB: A / PS: Cross] and then hold left / right on the stick to spin. You don’t have to complete all x3 Barrel Rolls in a single run.
- How To Backflip: To complete double back flip challenges, hold the same button mid-air [XB: A / PS: Cross] and hold back on stick.
There are more challenges, but they’re generally much easier to accomplish. Let’s go through some of them quickly here.
- How To Complete Car To Wingsuit Challenge:
- While driving, hold [XB: Y / PS: Triangle] to climb onto the roof. Press [XB: A / PS: Cross] to launch yourself with the wingsuit.
- Sideswipe Enemy Vehicles Challenge:
- Alert the cops, then perform sideswipes while driving. To do that, hold [XB: X / PS: Square] and press left / right on the stick. Perform multiple sideswipes on enemy vehicles until you complete the challenge.
- How To Complete 360 Spin Challenge:
- Same as the Backflip / Barrel Roll. Instead of holding down a button, just hold the stick left / right to start spinning. Like the Backflip / Barrel Roll, you will need to unlock improved air handling with cars by completing the JR’s Garage quest.
We’ll add more car challenges (that are tricky!) as we discover them. These are the ones we had the most trouble with. After a little exploration, they’re a cinch.
