YMMV / American Truck Simulator

• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Anytime you use the jake-brake to slow down, you're treated to a nice, loud "thubububububub!" in the 389 and 579, the VNL's jake-brake sounds akin to a flat-four engine while the W900 is more of a "Vrvrvrvrvrvr!". Finally, in the 1.37 Open Beta, the T680 got a new sound set and its jake-brake sounds like a jack-hammer
  • The relaxed beeping of the transponder letting you know you can bypass the next weigh station.
  • The sound of the trailer legs being raised or lowered. When you're picking up a cargo, it means "alright, let's go!". When delivering it, it means "FINALLY!". If you use your own trailers then the "Hiss! Clunk!" when your cargo is loaded when you begin and the engine shutting off when you're ready to unload is similarly satisfying.
  • Buying a new truck from any of the dealerships treats you to a series of shots panning over your new rig with an elevator version of the original dealership theme from Euro Truck Simulator 2.
  • The Kenworth W900 has a very gruff exhaust note when the pedal is down compared to the other trucks, especially when it's heard alongside the turbo.
  • The way the VNL's or Lonestar's engines squeak to a stop.
  • 1.37's Open Beta marks the transition to the FMOD engine, resulting in much better engine, exhaust, traffic and ambient sounds. They even added the ability to roll down the windows to listen to your truck's engine without having to use the outside cameras and show that the sounds are no longer divided into interior and exterior noises. The T680 also got a new sound set, making it sound much meaner than its Peterbilt counterpart, almost like a smaller sounding W900.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The fixed 65 mph speed limit on External Market jobs. In Euro, the 90 km/h speed limit is an annoyance, but mostly a very small one since almost every country has an 80 or 90 km/h truck speed limit anyway. In American however, most states have truck speed limits of 70 mph and above, making this seemingly random restriction hurts a lot more.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: This was the main complaint with the game at launch; that especially when compared to Euro Truck, the map was too small and compact, and with just four trucks from two manufacturers you could try everything in the game very quickly. The rescale of the map to 1:20, the steady stream of map DLC and the addition of every major North American truck manufacturer to the game has helped quash this complaint.
• Sequel Difficulty Drop: Compared to Europe, all trucks and trailers have prepaid insurance meaning that an unfortunate t-bone won't set you back more than $200. The lower center of gravity for conventional American trucks along with gentle curving, wide highways make it easier to drive at the speed limit without fear of rolling over (though this is averted if you use mod cab-over trucks such as the Kenworth K100), states have less variance in road laws which make it easier to traverse state lines versus going between Europe's country lines...
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: ...but fines are much more punishing, and the replacement of static, well-flagged speed cameras with roaming cops makes it much harder to get away with speeding, especially in cities. American trucks are also more difficult to drive than their European counterparts, due to their long nose, their increased overall length and greater number of gears (while most European trucks have 12 gears, an American truck will usually have 18 or more).
• That One Level: Some dropoff points require extreme preparation and planning.
  • Some deliveries can only be achieved by backing the truck up by aligning to the far mirror instead of the driver's mirror.
  • Deliveries to the smallest gas stations (and even fueling at the same) will be incredibly painful with a long trailer. The fueling point is in the lane closest to the road, meaning that many trucks will not have the turning radius to get into it.
  • The large Gallon refineries have a particularly difficult parking maneuver where the space is in a tiny bumpout just after a narrow archway.
  • Parking doubles, even at easy spots, cannot be done once you overrun the spot. The problem is the trailers jackknife once you reverse.

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