Need for Speed Most Wanted Tips & Tricks

Unmarked patrol cars and cruisers, roadblocks. The police mainly try to ram you off the road and setup roadblocks. Avoid roadblocks by doing an emergency brake lock U-turn or go through them. You can get through by ramming the cars on either end of the roadblock or by going through a weak point like the sawhorse or a gap between the cars. Use Speedbreaker to see the weak point in the roadblocks and use nitrous to ram straight through. Some road blocks will not extend all the way across the road -- you can go through where they have not placed a car.

Marked GTO (Monaro) police cars, marked 4WDs (Rhinos), rolling road blocks, roadblocks. These are quicker and you need to use objects to knock down in front of them to disable them. Lead the chase with these vehicles through the cities to use knock down points (for example, the giant donut sign, etc.) to disable the vehicles and end the chase. Then, find somewhere to hide when you hit Cool Down mode. "Rhinos" will ram you from the front. Listen for the call over the police radio. You can usually see these coming on your map or on the road ahead. Depending on which car you have, you can get away with ramming them head on. Otherwise, just use Speedbreaker again to change lanes before they ram you.

Unmarked GTO (Monaro) police cars, helicopters, spike strips. The unmarked GTOs (Monaros) usually chase in packs and are very hard to avoid. They will try to box you in by surrounding the car from the front and back and slamming the brakes to take away any room you have to escape. Avoid this by staying ahead and using the same tactics used in level 3. For the helicopters, use tunnels and underground parking lots to escape from them. When they spot you, they can radio the police to your location. Spike strips are set up usually on main roads and highways. You can see them on the map when you see only one vehicle over to left of the road not driving (i.e., pulled over). Aim for the police car and use nitrous to ram it and get away. If you hit the spike strip you will get caught.

You will not reach this level until you are at Blacklist #3. When you reach this level, all the best and toughest police come out. The helicopters get more aggressive, there are more spikes, and more belts are called in on you. You must also deal with "cross" cop Corvettes. Cross and his team will apprehend you at all cost. Like in level 4, the unmarked GTO cars will surround and box you in and hit the brakes. Corvettes will also try to use rolling road blocks. If you reach level 5, make sure you are in your fastest vehicle. You will need the nitrous.

You start Campaign mode only being able to achieve Heat levels 1 and 2 (City Police). By defeating certain Blacklist Rivals, you can then achieve the higher Heat levels:
Heat level 3 (State Police): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #13.
Heat level 4 (Undercover State Troopers): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #9.
Heat level 5 (Federal Authorities): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #5.
Heat level 6 (Cross' Street Racin' Unit): Defeat the Blacklist Rival #1 (final level only).
After you beat the Rockport's Most Wanted level, Heat level 5 will then consist of both the Federal Authorities and Cross' Street Racin' Unit.

When approaching a corner at a high speed, quickly assess whether or not you can get through it cleanly as fast as possible and without touching the inside or outside barriers. If you start drifting (or worse, careening out of control) toward a barrier, turn on your Speedbreaker in order to regain control via increased handling and traction. During this period of slowed time, straighten out your car and put it back into an ideal racing line. Once you are straight and driving in the correct direction, quickly turn off Speedbreaker and hit the Nitrous hard to rip out of the remainder of the corner. 

After upgrading your car with engines, suspension, brakes, etc., pause the game and go to "Performance Tuning". For better handling for the Lamborghini, Porsche, Corvette, and Viper, set the "Height" of you car to "-1". If you need more gripping power either take the "Height" to "-2" or set the "Aerodynamics" to "+1". If you go overboard with the performance tuning options (anything past "+3" or "-3"), the car will actually handle worse.

After getting busted and taking a strike, turn off the system the next time you get pulled over. Resume the game and those strikes will be removed.

If you get busted, during the scene when the cops are wrestling you to the ground, disconnect the controller then reconnect it and you will be at the pause screen. Then, jump to safe house to not get an impound strike.

Look at road signs around the city. They often have colored shapes (yellow triangles, etc.) to guide the way to the shops. Also, look for street-lights casting a colored glow. This indicates that there is a shop very close.