Slim Jim

The Slim Jim is a piece of car theft equipment in Grand Theft Auto VI, and the first tool players use in the game’s tiered vehicle security system.

The Slim Jim surfaced in the September 2022 GTA VI development leak and was confirmed in the Extended Look, which shows Jason standing beside a parked older car with two prompts: smash the window, or use the Slim Jim. The Slim Jim is the quiet option, getting into a locked car without setting off the alarm or alerting people nearby, but it has to be carried as an item, and in GTA 6 a quick-time input is needed to push the tool in and jimmy the lock. In GTA 5 characters occasionally used one as part of the break-in animation; here it is a deliberate mechanic. Smashing the window still works, but it is the sloppier steal and trips the alarm.

The Slim Jim is specifically for older, less secure cars. Rob Nelson told creators the team has added stratification to vehicles: nothing is needed to hotwire, but not all vehicles can be hotwired, and some need a key cloner to start, so a smashed window will get you into a high-end car without letting you drive it away. Early in the game, before a key cloner is unlocked, the only way to take a parked supercar is to pull the driver out of one already moving. The WAINK phone app scans any parked car and tells you which tool it needs. Tools are not handed out up front either. Rob said that as you do things for people in the world, particularly a vehicle fence, items unlock, and that most of what he was using in the demo, the Slim Jim included, had been unlocked by that point in the story.

Spotted in source materials from the 2022 development leak, then shown in gameplay for the first time in the Extended Look, where the second act opens with Jason using the Slim Jim on an older car while a tow truck drives past in the background. Preview attendees also saw it used during the hands-off free roam demo.

Creators compared the Extended Look moment to Franklin boosting cars in GTA 5, the difference being that in GTA 6 the Slim Jim only works on vehicles without advanced security, and the player has to perform the input rather than watch an animation. Its place at the bottom of the tool ladder, beneath the key cloner and the immobiliser bypass, is why analysts expect early-game players to lean on older cars, which are easier to enter, easier to hotwire and less likely to carry trackers.