Which New Cars Will Be the Project Cars of the Future?
Used car prices are making it harder to find a good project car. What will the future of the hobby look like?
Written by Andrew Koole
Reviewed by Kathleen Flear
Not every
used car
has the potential to be a great project car. Project cars have to be cheap, they have to be plentiful, and they have to be fun. And with the used car market the way it is right now, finding a project car is harder than ever. At this rate, will project cars even be a thing 10 years from now? Finding a good affordable project car is almost impossible these days
Used cars are more expensive than ever, thanks to the low supply of new models brought on by the chip shortage. It’s made finding a decently priced project car much harder.
Take the 1995 BMW 325is James Pumphrey of
Donut Media
pointed out recently. While you used to be able to snag one of these for less than $3,000, the one Pumphrey found sold for an eye-rolling $14,750. That doesn’t leave much cash for modifications.A
BMW 3 Series
from the mid-’90s used to be a prime example of a project car. Parts might not have ever been that cheap, but BMW built plenty of them, and like most of their cars, they built them well. They were fun to drive out of the gate, and people had a lot of fun decking out their engines, upgrading their paint jobs, and lowering their ground clearance.
But now that they cost almost $15,000 to start, garage nerds need to look elsewhere for a set of wheels to play around with.
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New cars that could be the project cars of the future
Project vehicles can go a number of ways. Some modifiers want to turn their budget wheels into supercars. Others just want something that looks and sounds cool. Still others are looking to change a vehicle to suit a particular task like overlanding.
In terms of the first two, current models with future project car potential include the Ford Mustang, Dodge Charger, and Hyundai Veloster. The Honda Civic SI could also have what it takes.
Really, any mass-produced sports car in this price range with an optional manual transmission will likely end up with fans ready to prep them for drag racing.
For
overlanders
, the current pool is more shallow. Pumphrey and his cohost Justing Freemaan highlighted the Ford Maverick as a frontrunner and shared hopes for the return of the small truck segment to make pickups cheap again. Why the future of project cars looks dimmer than it did in the past
The price of used cars are making the entry point for tinkering in your garage much harder to reach, but it isn’t the only trend in the auto industry making hobby-mechanics uneasy.
That’s right—we’re talking about the EV transition. Without much in the way of transmissions or engine parts, modifying electric vehicles is a much more technical undertaking than it is for gas burners. Sooping up an EV will take more computer knowledge than mechanic know-how.
That’s not to say it’s impossible. In fact, Freemaan and Pumphrey think EVs like the Tesla Model 3 could have a future as project cars once people learn how to hack them a little.
It will probably just depend on how cheap they get, how much the cost of
car insurance
drops, and whether the aftermarket support for them grows.Are you overpaying for car insurance?
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