The art of building your dream car

Let’s be realistic. A lot of us will never be able to own the cars that race on the highways in our dreams — or maybe that’s just me. But it never hurts to plan out the colors, features, and extra options of a car you might consider buying one day. Thanks to the Internet, you can design just about any car, from a Toyota Corolla to a Porsche 911 Turbo. The “build your car” feature on most websites is a great way to pass free time, and motivate you to get a job that will help your dream become a reality. Here are a few of my personal favorites:
Design and build your own MINI
This is one of my semi-realistic dream cars. I like to start with the MINI John Cooper Works hardtop. I’m not a fan of convertibles, and while the Cooper S is a lot of fun, in my dreams, I always have the top-of-the-line.
The base price of the JCW MINI is $28,550. I like the British Racing Green color with a white roof and white mirrors. For the extra $100, I like to get the white bonnet stripes too. I toss in both the premium package and convenience package because I want a sunroof, keyless entry and an iPod adapter. For handling, I take the sport suspension, $500 but thanks to choosing the already awesome JCW MINI, I don’t need much else. The only things left to add are leather seats, a center armrest and killer sound system bringing my total to a mere $37,120. Not bad.

Ford: Build and price
I can’t help myself. I have to build a Mustang. I start with the Mustang coupe, premium GT for only $28,725. I liked the Grabber Orange color, because it was more of a yellow — at least on my screen. I added the 18-inch chrome aluminum wheels with all season tires. I don’t believe in the DVD-based navigation, I’d rather stick to my Garmin, so I save almost $2,000 and still get what seems to be a decent radio. Five simple steps and I’ve got an awesome Mustang, not really my dream but you can’t build a 64 1/2 online, you need to build it physically. The total of my Mustang: $30,705. But that’s limited to what I can do on the Ford website. If I took it to Shelby I expect to double that number.

Build your Porsche
Shut up — a girl can dream. And I dream in Speed Yellow on a 911 Turbo. I wouldn’t want the wheels painted the same though. That’s a little too much yellow. I like how the adaptive sports seat with driver memory sound, so I figured $1,145 wasn’t much more when you think of the $128,700 base MSRP. Now it’s on to the fun stuff. Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes, Speed Yellow seatbelts, Bluetooth interface for mobile phone with a phone holder, six disc CD/DVD changer, universal audio interface and a fire extinguisher — safety first. And the grand total of a very awesome, very yellow Porsche is $153,770. But come on, seatbelts that will match the exterior? Totally worth it.

As much fun as I have building cars my journalistic salary might never aid me in purchasing, sometimes I do like to be realistic and look at cars I could buy in the next few years — before I make it big on the NASCAR circuit.

Volkswagen: Build
It’s not nearly as exciting — it doesn’t come in Speed Yellow or British Racing Green — but it’s affordable and practical. Those are two of my least favorite words. The VW Rabbit with four doors starts at $17,575. Black is really the only color that makes this car look remotely sexy, so black it is. I can’t really tell the difference between the interior color, so I skip it. I don’t believe in tiptronic transmissions, so a standard five-speed it is. At least I can add 18 inch wheels to make myself feel sportier. And a sunroof. I really like those. The sunroof was the last addition to my Rabbit, bringing the total to $19,827. That’s not completely unreasonable. I could buy seven Rabbits for the price of my Porsche.

Toyota: Build your own
The moderately priced Yaris is an excellent choice for any college student. It gets respectable gas mileage and the sedan version starts at $12,965. I chose “Option A” which is the convenience package. It includes AM/FM CD player with MP3/WMA playback capability, auxiliary audio jack, satellite radio capability and CD text display function; 60/40 split fold-down rear seat, 15-in. steel wheels with full wheel covers and rear window defroster — all for $840. To make it look more fun, I chose the Barcelona Red Metallic exterior color. I figured I’d keep this simple and not pick any pricey options so my total would stay relatively close to base price — it’s even under $15,000. My practical, responsible Yaris will only cost $14,525.

Build your Nissan
Hatchbacks are my favorite. I’m not in love with the Nissan Versa, but all things considered it’s practical — I really, really hate that word. The Versa hatchback starts at $12,990 and comes with 60/40 Split fold-down rear seatbacks, roof-mounted curtain side-impact supplemental air bags and front seat-mounted side-impact supplemental air bags. The Blue Onyx is a nice color without that look-at-me attitude. The nice thing about the Versa is that you can get either a manual or automatic transmission standard, a lot of times the automatic costs extra. I kept the manual. Anti-lock brakes aren’t standard, but it’s not an expensive option and it’s worth the cost, even if you have to buy the splash guards. The final cost of my Versa was $14,045, making it the least expensive car in my dream fleet.