Choosing the best car in Rocket League doesn’t require you to look through a bunch of stats and specs or mix and match parts. In fact, all of the cars enjoy the same handling, acceleration and top speed as one another. The only unique property each car has, is the size and the shaped of its hit box and a slight difference in turning radius. In any other racing game the hit box of the vehicle is inconsequential, but in Rocket League it’s everything.

Your hit box will affect every aspect of your game, so you should take the time to get a feel for the contact points of each car when you first start playing with it. A car’s hitbox can also make it better at different roles. For example, the Merc has a higher front end hit box which makes it slightly better at ramming the ball along the ground. The same ramming move tried with the merc or paladin will result in a chip shot because of their “wedge” shaped hitbox.

It reality, the best car in Rocket League is the one you feel most comfortable with and perform the best with. That being said, the differences in hitboxes do make some vehicles better for certain roles. Here’s a few of our favorite cars laid out by the role they excel at in game.

Goal Scorer

There are two theories behind what makes the best goal scoring car. Using small cars so you can attack the ball precisely from any angle, and using larger flatter cars to get better “paddle” action on front/ back flips.

If you’re new to the game your best bet is to go with one of the larger flatter cars like the paladin or breakout. They will give you more surface are to work with while you get used to the game mechanics. More experienced drivers can try out the smaller cars to get (in our opinion) greater accuracy on shots due to the smaller more round hit box they have.

If you absolutely can’t get the hang of aerial shots and prefer to move the ball around the ground, you might want to check out the merc or the road hog. Both have large flat frontal hit boxes, which causes them to “push” the ball along much easier than the other wedge shaped vehicles. Of course this comes at the cost of reduced ball height.

Goaltender

The best goal tending cars are your larger vehicles for obvious reasons.  The merc is a good choice for this role, but so are the x-devil and breakout, which can use flips to cover large areas of the net with their long flat body profile.

More proactive goal tenders who leave the net often to get up into the play can opt for a smaller vehicle by practicing their aerial goal tending manoeuvres which will make up for the slightly smaller hit box.

What’s your favorite Rocket League car and why? Let us know in the comments.