What do you reckon of this?
Layer 1 - hardware and basic mechanics -
A 12-frame chassis, 4 automobile wheels, one steel plated tank-protective board, one engine, seat and Basic controls
Layer 2 - basic features and hull -
Further one or 3 seats, two or four frame-fitted doors, also 2 or 4 frame-covered trunk spaces dependent on seating, two steel-plated, trunk-protective steel boards followed by an additional counter-sided to the car’s tank and 2 or 4 steel plated roof tiles to accomodate the seating spaces, two headlights, double windshields, four suspensions and a muffler
Layer 3 - refitted hull and full controls -
Additional steel plating on all four wheels, steel frame grill bars fitted to shield engine(s), plate-reinforced doors(2 or 4), reworked trunk framework so it fits a spare wheel, refitted trunk access with additional glass to improve rear vision and split-open doors, two or four additional glass windows fitted on doors to accomodate previous, air intake unit and onboard driving computer with cruise control, simple radio and some safety belts in front seat
Layer 4 - extras and production line finish -
Electronics to control multiple engines and other, car stereo with an extended support for wireless access and a display to show loaded maps via USB interface, extended utilities to onboard computer for traction, breaking and assisted steering, also full back headlights over trunk doors for offroad challenges, four-wheel drive as an optional double-engine feature, and optional enhanced gear.
Further, there are improved items that can rarely be found fitted, but occasionally found in garages or in some gearhead’s house corner or storage basement:
Suspension: mainly due to wheels sustaining damage encountering obstacles, stock kit should prove sufficient in overcoming no more. A performance kit is the one that should absorb a fair ammount of shock impact upon hitting other cars, houses, and the walking corpses so the car slows down without skid. The offroad kit should offer the above to the same extent, it’s only advantage should be that if fitted onto a 4WD-capable vehicle it offers 2-step steering when driving at safe, cruise-controlled speeds (evens driving on dirt or pavement, too).
Air Intake: this filtration system baffles with smooth engine rotation ensuring the constant gas-air mixture flow to the valves, also comes in three variants. Basic, Improved and Sports. The first one is commonly found and it improves engine performance up to 7%. The improved version is capped at 11%, and is the prerequisite for installing a working second engine and controlling it while driving. Sports variant should be harder to find mainly due to embedded cooling system, and it should improve the engine performance no more that 15%.
Car Controls: as stated above, there should be no less than three control systems to a vehicle; Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. The basic one implies that old-fashioned cars had nothing more than a gearbox, steering wheel and pedals. An intermediate level should be a bit more complex, having some advanced electronics for a better experience with air intakes and cruise control. If there was a second engine, both-axle control, a touchscreen and remote control feature to the computer and the car’s stereo, smooth steering/breaking and a way to improve car even further, either with electric power to it or even more futuristic features to improve performance, and Advanced Car Control System should be needed. First two should be common, but the last one can be tricky to stumble upon.
I find brakes to be a way to overwork things with cars, mainly because there is a great variety to them and which bothers me even more, there are different sets for every type of vehicle (even wheel type) which would be just horrible to put into game. I think this should be left intact.
I feel I have left some things (layer-wise) a bit sketchy, so I’ll depict them a bit. A vehicle that just works has nothing not much besides an engine, some comfort for the driver and a protected tank item. Even the most basic quads have that sort of shielding if they tip off, altough it’s fairly impossible due to the weight of wheels that stabilize them. The extra two frames that come instead of the second steel plating found on chassis’ regularily serve as mount points, and are worked onto as the car “upgrades” to full extent. As far as the second layer is concerned, imagine Paris-Dakhar racing and some of those light offroad racers; the doors are more like bars, the space in the back looks similar, and there is a windshield in front. If you have trouble imagining the back of such a car, it should look like the back of a typical pickup, but with some bars (sorta like those checkout ones in megastores, just two bent frames that can be closed) on the above and some plating to keep things from falling out; the other plating next to the back wheel is somewhat cosmetic, until reworked. In order to have the car covered and fully closed, existing framework should be plated and glassed for enviromental protection, the back bit redone so those frame-doors aren’t needed (there is roof) but there should be real back doors (like common ones, some plates wielded onto frames and glass windows too) and a space to fit an extra tyre(wheel) which is, in my concern, absolutely necessary in CataDDA - and it should be an unique feature to vehicles that are found intact. The trunk tiles should have roofs above, and wheels must be partially covered by some plating (like on every vehicle around).
Just to be clear, I feel that the game needs some improvements over existing features, being they are simple or advanced, if any. It would be great to have a car do as much as speeding up, emergency stopping, good steering aid and even travelling from A to B. You could have multiple cars, and use their compass with a personal USB drive to update onboard computer. To have more and more fun - display, stereo and wireless support could prove useful to show if there is any activity once there are factions and NPCs, or to power up car’s stereo from afar to draw-off some Zs while sneaking around, or even have immediate assist from those mounted guns. If cars are to be mobile bases, they should act as they’re named.
I’d like to hear everyone’s oppinion, so try and make our cataclysms a bit better. 
