Quantum panels (QP) can’t be manufactured. They’re sometimes found in lab finale rooms (bottom level of the lab) one at a time. Assume that any vehicles with multiple QPs you’ve seen are either result of great effort, or debugging and freeform gameplay (cheating is such an ugly word). QPs are also fragile and can’t be reinforced. So, your best solar panel is still reinforced upgraded solar panel. The downside is you still need a lot of them. 6-12 takes a lot of roof space, and I wouldn’t go with any less than 6. But if you can find a minireactor and some plutonium, your power problems are gone. I don’t hesitate using a minireactor to fill up my fresh but empty storage batteries, while the solar panels significantly slow down the drain. Note that storage batteries are stupid heavy now, like 150kg? 300kg? Can’t remember. So, those add up weight quickly.
But enough about power. Let’s talk armor. I have to mention that I prefer military cargo trucks and APCs, which are 5 tiles wide. For me armor is always either spiked plating or military composite. You’d start plating the front first, then the rear. After that the sides, and then spiral inwards until each tile has a plating. If it’s military composite, use the best condition plates on the exterior, since repairing military composite requires LVL 8 mechanics. Installing still requires LVL 6, though. Spiked plating is best in the front or rear. Shredders are absolutely fantastic. You can even slowly plow through forests with shredders in front. They then require frequent repair but it’s an acceptable tradeoff if you have a thin stretch of forest standing between you and something you’re curious about. Or if you need a permanent shortcut. Down with the trees, I say. Anyway, 40mph/64kph with spiked plating is enough to kill most zombies. That’s assuming you’re not using the Tough Zombies mod (double zombie HP). Using that mod, I think I saw a brute survive a spiked plating hit @ 96kph. When will zombies get various body masses, which would then affect vehicle collisions / sustained damage?
Your vehicle can also be your masterkey to many sealed buildings such as bank vaults, military bunkers and labs. Note that these buildings have walls that are 2 tiles thick. You could consider crating a 2-tile long ram on your vehicle, just so you don’t have to subject your entire front section to hitting the wall. Since actual rams can’t extend 2 tiles, you’d first build an extra heavy frame protrusion on the bumper and reinforce it, and then install the ram to extend it to be 2 tiles long.
Personally I don’t pay attention to vehicle noise all that much. I go fossile and install a muffler and that’ll have to do. Zombies have a short memory, so if you drive your car near them at night and kill the engine they’ll like lose interest, especially if there are other distractions nearby. Continuous noise (and light) is always bad of course. Short noise followed by silence is far safer.
Also consider building a sewer bike. I call it that. It’s basically a foldable motorcycle that you can carry down into the sewer network. Makes traveling down there way faster. It doesn’t have to be 100% foldable but mostly, just for quick setup.
Final tips: This is just a personal quirk that I started to practice recently but I like to replace the center reinforced windshield (if there’s 5 of them) with a minifridge. It keeps the food nearby next to the driver’s seat, and it doesn’t block visibility or movement. Another thing I like to do is to install the welding rig on the side of the vehicle, replacing a quarterpanel tile, just so the rig can be surely accessed from the outside. Store all your tools there too, such as wrench, hacksaw and rubber hose. Then you can conveniently perform operations (fuel draining, part removal) on other vehicles if you just drive your vehicle next to the the target vehicle, with the correct side facing it. Hell, you could install welding rigs on BOTH sides. Just make sure the rig tile has armor.
