The artwork for Automobile has been created by Mike Atkinson.

The track around the outside shows the models of cars that can be built. Factories will be placed in these locations, going clockwise around the board. You can skip locations by expending additional R&D points. You can have up to three factories in a location, how many determines the minimum and maximum number of cars that can be produced there. Cars come in three general types, cheap cars for the mass market, (brown edging), mid priced cars for the middle class market, (blue edging), and premium cars for those with more money than sense, (cream edging). Demand for each type varies from turn to turn. Early on in the game demand for mid priced cars will be higher than that for low or high priced cars. In the later turns the demand for low priced cars will rise dramatically, while that for high priced cars will grow a little.

The game is played over four turns. At the start of each turn players select one of the six characters shown towards the bottom of the board. Each character confers a special ability. Ford allows you to build an extra factory, Kettering gives you extra R&D points, Sloan allows you to get rid of Loss points, Howard allows you to sell extra cars, Durant allows you to build a new factory immediately, and Chrysler gives you extra R&D points and reduces your Loss points. Character selection also determines the order of play, going from Ford to Chrysler.

Each player will then get to perform three actions, Build Factory, Produce Cars, Take R&D, Place Distributors, and Close Factory. After that players sell cars. Players draw tiles at the start of each turn which give them some idea of the total demand but no the whole picture. Players now reveal these tiles and sell cars from locations, one at a time, going from the most advanced. Once the number of cars sold matches demand then you stop selling. You can attempt to increase the number of cars you sell by spending more R&D points on them or dropping your prices.

Loss points are taken when you do not sell cars and for having older factories on the board. They do not go away easily and the cost per point goes up each turn. You can get rid of them by choosing certain characters or by closing down factories. Loss points force to you keep building out along the track. If you don't, then the number you collect will end any hope you have of winning the game.

After four turns you count up how much money you have and add that to the capital tied up in factories. The player with the highest total is the winner.