JOC7B - A 2nd Family Car
Boise, 1994
Keith, Anissa, and the twins, Candace and Catherine, are starting to outgrow their current living situation. The girls are now 6 years old, and the family are finding both their townhouse and their old hatchback starting to feel cramped. They had hoped once the kids were no longer in car seats, the 3 door hatchback would come back into the fray, but found it still a hassle to use as a family car, leaving the brunt of duties on the Tanager. While a new car may delay the dream of a larger, single-family home a few more years, Keith and Anissa have decided that the old hatchback is due for more practical replacement; both cars in the household should be fully fit for purpose as a family car. With this move, Keith too is looking forward to a change. After quite a few years away from his sports car and a jump up to a comfier management position at work, he’s hoping the new car can also satisfy his desire for something fun and flashy. However, it must be a family car first and foremost.
Rules
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Al Rilma version of the game only.
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Trim/Variant Year - 1994 or older
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4 door sedan or 5 door liftback sedan. Sedans bodies labeled as coupes are allowed too. Basically, it should look like a sedan. Not looking for wagons, short hatchbacks, SUVs, etc.
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Wheelbase 2.6m-2.9m rounded.
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5 full (2 front, 3 rear only) seats required.
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Tires: Radial Medium or Sports only. Width must end in 5. Maximum width 255. Minimum profile 50. Maximum wheel diameter 17”
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Transmission may only be Manual or Adv. Automatic
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a 3-way catalytic converter (either kind) and at least one muffler is required.
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95 RON/91 AKI fuel maximum. You may use a lower grade fuel, though it offers no benefit.
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Maximum 8 cylinders.
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Your car must achieve WES 9 or better.
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Interiors are not required, and will not be judged.
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Legacy car bodies (it should say “Legacy Car Bodies” in the mod name) are not allowed.
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$45M combined Techpool limit
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ATS: Please run any major changes by me prior to submission. A few clicks in ride height or wheelbase offset will definitely not be an issue, wheel/tire adjustments should be used more sparingly but little adjustments should be OK.
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Model name: JOC7B - yourusername
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Family name: JOC7B - yourusername
Price Calculation
I’m going to try something a bit experimental here. Rather than giving flat cost penalties to highly advanced options, I’m going to introduce a price margin modifier. This modifier will be based on the PU and ET of your engine and trim.
The engine modifier will add cost to your in-game price based on the sum of your engine’s PU and ET, divided by 20.
The trim modifier will add cost based the sum of your trim’s PU and ET, divided by 10.
For example, if your engine has a PU of 35 and an ET of 80, the engine modifier is:
(35+80)/20 = 5.75
then your trim has a PU of 95 and ET of 85, the trim modifier is:
(95+85)/10 = 18
Then your overall price modifier is 23.75. The price of your vehicle shown on the Statistics tab will be increased by 23.75%. For example, if your car was $22,000, its adjusted price would now be $27,225.
A link to a price calculator can be found here.
Priorities
Styling - Kieth and Anissa are looking for something that looks contemporary with a bit of flair. Keith does not want a wagon or something shaped like one, but fastback/liftback sedans are good.
Comfort - A daily driver for a family of four, and something of a splurge purchase, Keith wants to feel like this car is a step into “the good life”
Sportiness - As the de facto replacement for Keith’s old sportscar, driving fun is priority.
Value For Money - Keith is expecting to pay an adjusted price of $22,000-$30,000. The more value for money, the better. Anything above $32,000 is fully out of budget, and anything below $20,000 may not be nice enough.
Fuel Economy - This is a daily driver. Fuel is cheap but it is still a serious consideration.
Prestige - Keith wants something with a bit of panache, something that helps quell his desire to keep up with the Joneses.
Safety - Important in a family car.
Performance - Not looking for a rocketship, but anything too slow won’t be considered. 0-100 kmh should be in the low 7s to the mid 8s range. Any faster is of no extra benefit. Anything within the range is acceptable, but faster is better.
Size - Keith and Anissa would both prefer a large and spacious car. Ideally something an American would consider a midsize, or even fullsize, sedan. Smaller than 4.6m long will be viewed unfavorably and larger than 5.5m is getting too big, but within that range, preference will be given to larger cars.
SVC Costs - Again, daily driver here.
Reliability - …daily driver
Drivability - Keith and Anissa are both skilled drivers who do not need a huge amount of drivability, but the car will be expected to be used in the snow with winter tires, and, depending on the longevity of the car, may still be in the family when the twins start learning to drive. RWD is less favored, but by no means a deal breaker.
Env. Resist - No need to go crazy here, just don’t completely scrimp.
Inspirations
Saab 900 NG
Ford Taurus SHO
Nissan Maxima SE
Acura Vigor
Volvo 850 Turbo
Chevrolet Impala SS
Volkswagen Passat VR6
Discussion on the ruleset will be open for discussion for now, with the hope of opening submissions shortly. I plan on a two week submission window.
Notes:
The price adjustments are experimental. I’m hoping to simplify the current norm of manual price adjustments by individual choices. Based on my testing I am not sure it is quite enough to defeat the typical meta but entrants often surprise me. If some wild cheese rises to the top, so be it, that is the risk of trying something new.
You may notice in the inspirations a distinct lack of the big 3 German luxury brands. This is not unintentional; looking up pricing for just a standard 325i they were quite a way above these in pricing.
Submissions are now open until December 1st, 11 PM EST. Countdown Timer.
