The 3rd mission requires you to get through gates only with the use of cars. I've read up on how wonky they are, so I just move in through the gates, stop, have my guys get out, do the mission and then get back into the car.

The problem is that then the car seems to have a life of it's own, and basically keeps circling in a loop in the block in the NW part of the map. I can stop the car by clicking on it, but otherwise it won't obey mouse commands to go down the road and back through the gates.

Anyone else having a similar problem and/or could offer a suggestion?

The same thing happened to me in that mission. Only thing I can say is that it seems the car has to go to a 4 lane intersection are something to make a U turn before going back through the gates. Just keep clicking on bits of road and trying to guide the car towards the gates. I was a bit confused too, but you should be able to proceed. It's not just the cars though, your squad can get separated as well because sometimes when you click on certain places the AI just can't figure out the optimal way to get there. :/

It is pretty much random. Just don't click to far away from your actual position when you want to drive your car somewhere. It will go completely nuts, but it is pretty much jsut random.

They should build some enhancements when it comes to driving.

The game can drive you nuts sometimes, mostly when the cars just move about as they wish but also when the terrible pathfinding.

The best option is to set the destination by clicking where you want to go on the small map. Works much better.

When I use the car:

1. Whenever there is trouble (like when the car takes a surprise turn) I stop, exit and fight a little away from the car. On later levels the car explode instantly.
2. Remember that it does matter if you click on the left or right side of the road.
3. Whenever the car does weird things I spam-click until it responds :p

But yeah, any use of a vehicle is a sure way of asking if you remembered to save before the mission :)

Basically, never use vehicles expect there is no other options. Cars are like bombs and pretty fragile.

I remembered playing this game and finding out that the side of the road that you click on does matter, as humblegar mentioned. After figuring that out, getting around in vehicles was simple.

Indeed they are fun :P but not if you are in one of them.

Syndicate's pathfinding system is sadly not very good.
The AI (both on foot and in car) tries to make a beeline towards the target, without knowing what lies ahead.
So if you click somewhere to the right of your driving agent and the correct turn to take to go there is the second right, he'll most likely not wait until the second turn and he'll take the first wrong turn that way.

As mentioned, the side of the road you clicked does matter and clicking on closer spots does help a lot.

Yeah, the AI pathing really sucks, but remember this game is 19 years old. Still, having a game-breaking pathfinding error on one of the earlier "Kill all syndicate" survival-style mission where they never go up the ramp is not the way to go.

Still an awesome game. I agree that cars are really fun. It's even more fun to wait inside a car while weak syndicates head to you. Then, when they are on the road, you turn the car on and run them over.