Which Project Car

[hamd01]

So.... a little project I have at work. We are looking to start a project car....project. We'll be modding the car pretty heavily, mainly to showcase a range of interior electronic gadgets.... but we are at the stage of debating which car to go with before we hit autotrader and ebay.

At the moment Im thinking a BMW e81, Audi A3, Scirocco, Golf.

The car needs to appeal to petrolheads... not so much those modding the engine performance, but those interested in modding the interior side of things.

A few requirements for the car

Not a hairdresser's car
Priced around £2.5k
Ideally a standard din/double din stereo fitting
Not a hairdresser's car
Ideally under 80k miles
Absolutely no requirements on colour/finish as we'll be wrapping it.
Must be decent to look at from the outside....not something your gran would buy. Its going to spend most of its life with a camera pointing at it.
Must not be a hairdressers car

So I thought I'd throw this out there. Based on the above spec....what makes/models would you guys be looking at?

[MattsCar]

A Nissan cube would be a cool choice.

[donkmeister]

The "hairdressers car" bit is subjective... Some think anything with a retractable roof is a hairdresser's car, others would point at a Transit as being better suited to bringing back the week's supplier of Timotei and Proraso from the wholesalers. Me, I would be thinking "He says he doesn't want a hairdresser's car yet he is looking at a Golf in a frock?"

As it's a showcar you're building (I think... from what you've said), you might want to consider a convertible. Easier for punters to get a look at your wares without having to get in, easier to spot some knob trying to nick/break your car when you aren't looking, and if you have someone taking a good long look then other potential customers can see what's happening instead of strolling past to your competitors.

So...
MG TF - single DIN, can be had within budget with that mileage. It's a mid-engine sports car, so definitely a petrol head car but it could be a bit marmite.
Alfa Romeo Spider - single DIN, can be had within budget but unlikely to meet your mileage limit. Bit exotic and definitely a petrol head car.
SAAB 9-3 convertible - double DIN kit available. Can be had within budget. Bit unusual and even after the GM takeover SAABs were still a bit different, special.

Not a convertible but you could go a bit left field and buy an old RWD Volvo. The driftboys love them so it's got a bit of petrol head cachet, it's well known, a bit different, but also innocuous enough that you won't have people coming up to slag off your choice of project car.

The alternative to me would be to go full 90s style with an estate or van with a subwoofer tunnel and bars across the windscreen. Still remember my mate getting a nosebleed from one of those.

ETA just realised you might be doing this for YouTube, from what you've said about cameras. Convertible still a good idea for that, plus if you are promoting your business it would still be good to take it to shows.

Edited by donkmeister on Wednesday 1st March 00:54

[hamd01]

donkmeister said:

As it's a showcar you're building (I think... from what you've said), you might want to consider a convertible. Easier for punters to get a look at your wares without having to get in, easier to spot some knob trying to nick/break your car when you aren't looking, and if you have someone taking a good long look then other potential customers can see what's happening instead of strolling past to your competitors.

So...
MG TF - single DIN, can be had within budget with that mileage. It's a mid-engine sports car, so definitely a petrol head car but it could be a bit marmite.
Alfa Romeo Spider - single DIN, can be had within budget but unlikely to meet your mileage limit. Bit exotic and definitely a petrol head car.
SAAB 9-3 convertible - double DIN kit available. Can be had within budget. Bit unusual and even after the GM takeover SAABs were still a bit different, special.

Not a convertible but you could go a bit left field and buy an old RWD Volvo. The driftboys love them so it's got a bit of petrol head cachet, it's well known, a bit different, but also innocuous enough that you won't have people coming up to slag off your choice of project car.

The alternative to me would be to go full 90s style with an estate or van with a subwoofer tunnel and bars across the windscreen. Still remember my mate getting a nosebleed from one of those.

ETA just realised you might be doing this for YouTube, from what you've said about cameras. Convertible still a good idea for that, plus if you are promoting your business it would still be good to take it to shows.

Edited by donkmeister on Wednesday 1st March 00:54

Thanks very much for this reply....some really awesome ideas in there! Really good point about going convertible for the accessibility (yes we'll be using YouTube), hadn't even considered that, but a convertible is going to make it 10 times easier to film content! I'm definitely sold on that idea if something comes on budget.

The Saab ticks the boxes....especially the fact it's double din, which is going to result in a much nicer finish after it's been modded. I'm just not entirely keen in the shape of it.... can I see a the Alfa's working well...but again struggling to see one that's double din and on budget.

[jrb43]

The convertible idea is definitely a really wise one. Given you want space for ICE etc, aren't looking for the last word in handling etc and I imagine a degree of easily available parts would help: Ford Focus CC? They won't have rusted yet and I imagine most owners will pay you around £500 to remove it from their drive?

Just a (half serious) thought.

[griffin dai]

hamd01 said:

Thanks very much for this reply....some really awesome ideas in there! Really good point about going convertible for the accessibility (yes we'll be using YouTube), hadn't even considered that, but a convertible is going to make it 10 times easier to film content! I'm definitely sold on that idea if something comes on budget.

The Saab ticks the boxes....especially the fact it's double din, which is going to result in a much nicer finish after it's been modded. I'm just not entirely keen in the shape of it.... can I see a the Alfa's working well...but again struggling to see one that's double din and on budget.

You’ll need the facelift 9-3 for double din or one of the later pre facelift cars with the newer dash. So 07 onwards (but it think late 06 cars came with it….and also the higher tax band!) The 03-06 cars are a nightmare to upgrade audio wise. It’s a fibre optic system, no actual head unit to replace and it’s not a double din size anyway, so the only way is bypass the original system and fabricate a double or single din mount/fascia where the ICM is (never looks right and there’s no fascia kits available for this style dash) or ditch the CD player and fit a single din here instead and run an independent system. Still have to bybass the fibre optics but keep the FO loop in place. I did this on the last car. It’s one option but also a ton of work. But you can run a decent single din head unit (had the Pioneer 80PRS for a year that was excellent then upgraded to the P99RS which was another level once tuned!!) couple amps plus some nice components & sub!




I haven’t bothered with this one, I’ve just changed the dash speakers for some Hertz coaxials and added a DAC to the Aux & deadened the doors. Sounds pretty good and didn’t cost loads just no where near how it sounded in the last car. I’ll swap the door 6.5’s this summer and that’s it for this one, but again Saab being Saab fitted 2ohm woofers here instead of the usual 4ohm like EVERYONE else……so I’m limited to what I fit, probably 2ohm Audisons. I’ve been trying to get info from Helix about the SDMI25 they sell where you plug it into the cars fibre optic loop and enables you to run a couple amps plus DSP but typically….Saab not listed and they haven’t had one to test/not interested

Basically it’s a pain in the balls.

[M22s]

Still a really active scene in VAG modding so the last 3 would all be safe bets.