GTA Online's San Andreas Mercenaries Update: Rockstar Giveth, Then Taketh Away 200 Cars

In the ever-expanding universe of Grand Theft Auto Online, where the cars are fast, the load times are long, and the microtransactions are plentiful, Rockstar Games once pulled a move so audacious that players are still grumbling about it in 2026. The San Andreas Mercenaries update, which dropped back in 2023, was supposed to be a gift: new missions, fresh cosmetics, and a bunch of quality-of-life improvements. And it was—sort of. But then Rockstar also decided to quietly delete around 200 cars and motorcycles from the in-game stores. Not just any cars, mind you. Fan favorites. Competitive racers. The kind of vehicles that make you feel like a kingpin instead of a chump. And to add insult to injury, many of them were shoved behind the GTA+ paywall, accessible only through the Vinewood Car Club. Cue the internet-wide meltdown.

Now, Rockstar did try to preempt the backlash. Before the update, they flagged that "many lesser-used vehicles" would be removed from dealership websites to "streamline the shopping experience." They promised these cars would "occasionally be made available in other ways," like at the Diamond Casino's Lucky Wheel. Sounds reasonable, right? Except players quickly realized that "lesser-used" was doing a lot of heavy lifting. The list of removed vehicles, meticulously catalogued by furious forum dwellers, included beloved models like the Jester and the Massacro—two affordable, high-performance cars that were anything but unpopular. Meanwhile, the Virgo from Ill-Gotten Gains and the Baller LE LWB somehow survived the cull. The community's collective eyebrow raised so high it achieved orbit.

"They said lesser vehicles and removed f***ing everything," vented SparkySyndicate on the GTA forums. While not strictly accurate—some cars did remain—the sentiment captured the mood. Another player, ImAddictedToGaming, laid out the logic (or lack thereof): "I would have been mostly alright with cars that you could just steal from the street and store in a garage being removed from the websites, but they've gone absolutely nuclear and taken away a load of vehicles that, let's be honest here, definitely do not fit the description of 'lesser-used'." They pointed out the absurdity: the Jester and Massacro are cheaper and more popular than the Virgo or Baller LE LWB. "I try to see a bit of logic in everything they do," they added, "but I'm seeing none in this."

The real kicker? The Stirling GT. This sleek, competitive sports classic is one of the cars affected. It's now exclusively available to GTA+ subscribers through the Vinewood Car Club, where ten vehicles shuffle weekly for test drives and purchases. But here's the rub: you can't even subscribe to GTA+ on PC. The subscription is a console-only perk for PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. So PC players who want a Stirling GT are simply out of luck. They can either wait for the Lucky Wheel to maybe, possibly, one day spit one out, or they can switch to console and pay up. As Thrasher9294 put it: "Some, like the Stirling GT, are among the most competitive vehicles in their specific classes. And in that particular case, the Stirling GT is still available for purchase—for GTA+ members only... It's a fairly baffling example of attempting to introduce FOMO into a decade-old game at this point, and the community is rightfully pretty pissed."

To be fair, players who already owned these cars didn't lose them. But for anyone who joined GTA Online after 2023, or who simply hadn't gotten around to buying a Jester yet, the door was slammed shut. Rockstar's suggestion that these vehicles would "occasionally" appear at the casino wheel felt like a bad joke. The wheel is already a slot machine of disappointment; now it's the only hope for a Stirling GT on PC. Thanks, Rockstar.

Let's break down the situation:

What Rockstar Said	What Players Heard
"Lesser-used vehicles"	"Your favorite cars"
"Streamline the shopping experience"	"Make shopping impossible"
"Occasionally available"	"Good luck, sucker"
"GTA+ is a great value"	"GTA+ is a hostage situation"

The update also nerfed payouts and increased prices, because of course it did. It was a masterclass in how to alienate a loyal player base. And remember, this is a game that launched in 2013. By 2026, it's a teenager. You'd think Rockstar would treat it with a little respect, but no—they're still finding new ways to monetize nostalgia.

In the end, the San Andreas Mercenaries update was a perfect snapshot of modern GTA Online: a free content drop that actually cost you your favorite rides. Rockstar giveth, and Rockstar taketh away—usually with a subscription fee attached. The community's anger was justified, the FOMO was blatant, and the PC players got the shortest end of a very short stick. As 2026 rolls on and GTA 6 looms on the horizon, one can only hope that the next generation of Grand Theft Auto learns from these mistakes. But let's be real: if there's a dollar to be made, Rockstar will find it. And someone, somewhere, will pay. Just not on PC, apparently.

Rockstar's appetite for squeezing every last dollar out of its back catalogue doesn't stop at GTA Online, of course. The same publisher that gated a decade-old sports car behind a monthly subscription also controls the pricing on its single-player epics, and those prices swing wildly depending on which storefront you open, which region you're in, and whatever sale happens to be running that particular week. For anyone who would rather put their money toward a finished, offline Rockstar game than toward another month of GTA+, it pays to shop around before hitting the buy button — particularly with something like Red Dead Redemption 2, which still sits at near-full price in some shops while sitting at a deep discount in others.

That's exactly the kind of gap a price comparison tool is built to expose. Rather than opening half a dozen storefronts in half a dozen tabs and squinting at currency conversions and regional quirks, you can just check the Red Dead Redemption 2 price on PriceRadar and see how the live offers stack up side by side. It's a small convenience, sure, but after watching Rockstar turn a virtual car into a subscription hostage, being able to spot a genuine bargain feels like a modest win.