How to Play Bumper Cars (Board Game)

Preparing the Game

Gather up to four players for this game. This is game is meant to be played with two players but may have no more than four players playing at once. Other potential players will have to wait for future rounds.

Set up the game board for gameplay. It will have several boxes at the bottom and top of various colors and numbers. Review your arrows to see what the direction of travel is.

Pick your car-mover's color. In the game's box, you will find four different colored cars: yellow, red, green, and blue. Take all four car movers of your chosen color out of the game box, but ensure players only have one set of four cars for each round of play.

Place each car on its respective spots. Position each car on it numbered spots at the bottom, based on color and number at the bottom of the board. Each car has a number on the top, either via a sticker or an engrained number.

Roll the dice to find out who begins first. The total of each dice determines the player who begins: highest goes first. If two players roll the same number, players will have to re-roll their dice one more time to determine the winner, but only if these are the top two players vying for the right to begin the game.

Playing the Game

Have the first player roll two dice. Each die represents the number of spaces each car can move. You can move one car the total number of space between the two, or move both cars individual and equal amounts of spaces for each of the numbers rolled. You may move either forward or sideways, but never backward. If you roll a 6 and 1, you can move one car six spaces and the other car one space OR you can move only one car 7 spaces (the sum of 6+1). Roll again if the player rolls doubles after moving the cars the first time, and move these cars again in the second play. Once you stop rolling doubles, play must be relinquished to the next player.

Watch the colored spaces, because they can trigger a "bump" if another player lands on the same space. Move your car either forward or sideways.

Know when bumping is acceptable. If you land on a color on a non-matching color and another player stops on that spot, their car must move back to the start line, but your car stays put. Even if both cars aren't the same as the color spot in question, if two cars land on a space that isn't theirs, the first player to land on the spot is safe while the other car must retreat to start. If you are on a non-matching color spot and a correctly-colored car lands on that spot, send your car back to the start. If the car moves through the space containing another car to an empty space, no bumping occurs yet. If the same color player lands on one of their spots, these players can't be bumped. If you end up having to bump them, you will be forced to retreat to start again with that car. Cars on their own color can't be bumped, regardless of who else landed there, but can send anyone who does land there with you back to their starting line. Cars can be bumped on a grey spot, regardless of the color of the car sitting on it. No bumping occurs if two of your cars occupy the same space.

Move into the parking lot with your cars. Follow the directions of play with the cars into the "Free Parking Area" at the top of the board. Park each car in it's spot matching the number on the car. When rolling, match the number of spots needed to enter the spot exactly to park the car. If you can't move, play passes to the next player. If you have four spots in the grey area and one spot into the colored, if you roll one six and you only have one car left to park, you must relinquish until you roll only a five. If you roll less, great - move your car that much closer. Numbered cars of ones and twos will generally find it easier to enter from the left side, while the third and four cars will find it easier to enter from the right.

Be mindful of the parking lot rules. The parking lot contains several one-way grey spots (marked with an arrow) and you can only move in that direction. Move your car into its designated spot in the Parking Lot. Cars numbered one and two generally find it easier entering from the left, while cars numbered three and four will find it easier to enter from the right. However, this will also depend on your game board's version because older boards had these numbers reversed with 1 and 2 being on the right and 3-4 being on the left. Don't ever reverse directions in the parking lot. If you overshoot your spot, continue moving around the path, out and around again.

Declare a winner. The player who can bring all their cars to their matching spaces in the Parking Lot is the winner. In the case that multiple players park their cars on the same turn, tie-breaking is determined and can be bound by the player taking the fewest total moves or similar.