Low cost car ideas [Very outdated, take as you will]

Ideas to create cool unique cars spending less. This guide is heavily loaded with images so you can get inspirations to your own creations!
*WORK IN PROGRESS*

A few things before starting

Taste!

You might not like some of the cars presented here and it's OK to do so! If everyone had the same taste probably everyone would use the same cars and combinations! Different tastes is what keeps the world not boring. The point of this guide is to spark you some ideas.

Images! Lots of'em

Want a quick read? Read only the Tip!s and the TL;DR at the end. Still TL;DR? Just check out the images (we're full of them) I won't be mad, I promisse!

Steal my car!

What is the name of the wheel you used? And that boost? And the decal? The last section of this guide will have all the featured cars with the complete preset so you can steal for you the looks.

Prices

In this guide all cars cost between 0 to 5 keys (average = 1k, except when it's shown Black Revenant or TW Septem, then it's around 4k) so you can steal any design with the basic key kit (5k) available in game.

Buggy formatting and english mistakes

I'm having some hard time formatting this, my "Tip!" titles are bugging with the images and only appearing the exclamation marks, I'm working on it.
Also english is not my native language so I'm about to make a lot of mistakes, so, if possible, point out my mistakes in the comment section so I can fix them (and learn!).

Choosing a body

When choosing a body you should take in consideration not only the cool factor but the hitbox as it varies from body to body. A bunch of cars have the same hitbox despite the different shapes so you can cycle between them without having a significant performance change on game. Be aware though that what you see (model) most of the times doesn't correspond to the actual hitbox, so your car might hit the ball without the body visually contacting the ball.

The main hitbox categories are:

Octane type:
Octane, Octane zsr, Twinzer, Backfire, Bone Shaker, Delorean Time Machine, Fast 4WD, Gizmo, Grog, Jeep Jurassic Wrangler, Marauder, Merc, Proteus, Road Hog, Road Hog XL, Scarab, Takumi, Takumi RX-T, Triton, Vulcan, Zippy.

Dominus type:
Dominus, '70 dodge charger r/t, Aftershock, Dominus, Dominus GT, Gazella GT, Hotshot, Ice Charger, Masamune, Ripper, Werewolf, Imperator, Maverick, Maverick G1, Maverick GTX, MR11.

Plank type:
Artemis, Artemis G1, Artemis GXT, Batmobile, Centio v17, Mantis, Paladin, Twin Mill III.

Breakout type:
Animus gp, Breakout, Breakout type-s, Samurai, Cyclone.

Unique/Hybrid*:
Endo, Esper, Jäger 619 rs, Nimbus, '99 Nissan Skyline GT-R R34, Venom, X-Devil, X-Devil MK2.

*Unique or hybrid, is something between hitboxes types.

Tip! I made another guide just with the hitboxes for quick reference by type (as above) and by car in alphabetical oder.

Body pricing

It's noteworthy to say that almost all bodies cost around half to 1k so there is no way you are avoiding paying that if you want one from crates. Latest bodies (from current crate, I mean) generally go for a lot of keys but if you wait for the next crate to be launched you will probably be able to get it for 1k or less, I mean, they always go down and stabilize around that range, avoid paying more than that. See section "Aquiring items" at the end of this guide to see tips on trading.

Also, painted bodies aren't that expensive except TW ones. But if you really want to go for TW look for common bodies, they usually go for cheap.

Choosing a decal

Decal is probably the thing that will mostly influence the next choices.

If you wanna go blackmarket there is some cheap ones, although not very good looking (spectre, tora, labyrinth), if you'd like to go after them, it's possible to come with good looking cars with them, BUT, the most unique cars are made with painted decals. Any color can do the trick but be careful when buying: some colors dont stand out depending on the decal.

Some decals usually animated and black markets change the car window reflection. It's a small difference, noone will probably notice specially ingame but it's worth noting.

Titanium white decals are great because fits well in any dark color scheme.




Black decals fits in light color schemes, although it's very troublesome to stand out. Be careful when aquiring black decals, look for images first or youtube showcases because sometimes they simply dont look very good or looks somewhat buggy in color masking.



Want to go animated? There is a bunch of not expensive animated decals like MG88 (Octane and Endo, Dragon lord (Octane), Kilowatt (Octane), Snakeskin (Various cars), Distortion (various cars), carbonated (Road Hog), Vector (takumi and breakout), kaleidoscope (universal decal).



Tip!
Sometimes a specific color fits very well with the decal theme


Tip!
No decal, y not?

Choosing colors and paint job

Base color

Well, you are stuck with a few. For blue team you got blues, greens and purples. And for red Yellows, reds, oranges and browns. Pick the color you like the most or feel that fits the theme better.

Accent

Here you got way more freedom, all the pallete is available, but not all colors look good together. Go mixing and experimenting.

Don't forget to pick the colors with the other item's colors in mind. You can change these colors, your item's not.

Be aware!
In DLC packs (Revenge of the Battle-Cars, Chaos Run, Supersonic Fury) it's included some really cool paintjobs only obtainable by purchasing those DLC's. Honorable mentions are: Sun Damaged, Carbon Fiber, Toon Glossy and the almigthy Metallic Pearl.

Be aware!
Does your color feel different ingame? The different ambient lights from different arenas changes the overall color aspect of your car, so don't expect your car looking the same through different arenas.

Tip!
Matching the whole car to the same colors are a safe bet, but, sometimes a well placed different color gives it a great look.


Tip!
People rather paint their red team's car with yellow or red. Painting your car with brown colors is thinking outside the box, also it allows you to use Burnt Sienna items which you can get for very cheap.


Tip!
Do you want a different shade of the color that isn't in the pallete? Try using different paint jobs. Sun damaged (Revenge of the battle Cars DLC), for example, darkens the color to the next level.

Tip!
If the decal covers certain parts of the car like spoiler, air intakes or other accesories use carbon fiber or other material to make it look realistic.


Tip!
Matching accents with the base color makes some parts of the painted decal invisible, creating unique decals. This also works when you match the base color or the accent to the decal's paint.

Tip!
Decals with tears goes well with 3Dish and heavy detailed paints.


Tip!
Do your decal have any animal? Use furry, zebra, dino or any other animal paint to make it look more realistic.

Tip!
Depending on the accent paint you can get lighter or darker shades on the body of the car, where you can't change color. In the picture below we used toon wood (lighter) and zebra (darker). This effect is also seen with animated decals and universal decals.

Tip!
Do you like bloom? Anodized is the way to go. It's so bloomy that will blind you opponents. And yourself. Mostly yourself.

I know this pic looks made up but isn't, see for yourself in-game!


Tip!
Pearlescent and Metallic Pearl are special paintjobs. It uses your accent color as a secondary primary color. Confusing? LEMME EXPLAIN: when you look at certain angles your primary color will be the accent. If applied as the accent paintjob it does the opposite, using the primary color as the shade color. Still confused? Me too, I will edit this part soon to be more clear. Meanwhile see pic below, this painjob was nicknamed Galatic by this dude and the primary color is purple with pearlescent paintjob with a pink accent.
PS:The accent paintjob (or primary, if the pearlescent is used on the accent) does not change the pearlescent effect.

Choosing a wheel

So, you selected some colors to your cars now we got to select some wheels to match.
This part is tricky. Cool looking wheels can go well past 50 keys specially in titanium white. But we got this covered, there is a few ways to get cool looking and not expensive painted wheels, by aquiring:

• Trade-up wheels (painted commons).
  
• Painted very rare wheels from crates (septems, SLK's, Nippers).
  
• Wheels from crates that the paint doesn't change much of the general color (hiro, Turbines)

If you are on a tight budget and want to fit the same wheel on different cars here's a few options:

• Buy cheap titanium white or black wheels. Can't go wrong with them, fits well in the main color schemes of both teams (blue/green/purple, red/yellow/orange/brown)
  
• If titanium white/black is too expensive sometimes might be less expensive to purchase two painted wheels. Consider the colors you use the most (probably blue and red) and buy in that color or buy a blue team main shade (blue/green/purple) and a red team main shade (red/yellow/orange/brown). Usually blue and red are much more expensive than green and yellow, for example.
  
• You don't have to match the wheel color to the main car color, you can match with the accent or the decal paint, which will greatly expands the possibilities.

Most of your wheels probably won't be painted so be creative, sometimes you can create a design that will perfectly match the colors.


Tip!
In order to maximize profits Pysonix made some wheel's default color toothpaste color like in septems and saptarishes so they won't look good in most color combinations. Well, they did the homework right, they do look awful with most color combinations, so, do not use them.


Tip!
if the wheel has no color, does it match with everything or nothing? We haven't decided yet but black revenant is transparent and we couldn't find a bad combination.


Tip!
SLK's looks great in open-wheel cars! (and they're cheap!)

Tip!
Gearlock is a droppable rare wheel, it's not paintable but the default is somewhat white. It might not be the prettiest of them all but it's free so give them a try!


Tip!
Some wheels have parts with distinct colors that isn't paintable so you're stuck with it. Use to your advantage and make a car with that color.

Choosing a boost

Boosts are the junction of the exaust effect and the trail that leaves the car. Some of them also have a passive effect that shoots out from the car, for example, standard boost leaves a small smoke (see bloom pic somehwere back in this guide) and lightning make some mini lightnings when not in use.


When it comes down to boosts you got a headstart: Standard boosts are the pro's choice for reasons yet to be discovered and it comes by default in your inventory in several colors. Use them! Ions and flamethrowers come in several colors for free too.

If you want something different and dont mind having different boosts for each team look for older boosts from crates, they go for cheap and they don't have painted versions so the default colors are well put together.


Titanium white, black and gray boosts are great cause they fit with most builds.


Tip!
You are a bloom dude? Doesn't mind to be blinded nor cares if your teammate will? Use painted flamethowers, specially the yellow one, they are so bloomy that you will only be able to see when you're not boosting.


Be aware!
Some boosts have a long decay as observable in power-shot, for example, and in some very rare cases this may block your vision if aerialing at the right angle.

Choosing a topper

Toppers aren't a must. They're mostly ugly, blocks vision, confuses you on where the hitbox is (they don't modify the hitbox either). But there are good toppers when used well.

Animal ears are great looking

Toppers that emulate real stuff we put above the car looks good too.

You can also match the topper with the car's theme.

The best rule for toppers is.. be creative! Or just don't use!

Choosing an antenna

Don't.

If you really want at least don't use unaerodinamical banners, use flags.

Ok, ok. You can use it. As I said before, be creative!

Choosing a trail

Trails are somewhat hard to match. Don't worry too much with color, the trail is only visible when you are supersonic and thats 10% of the match. Also in the menu and post-game win it's non visible so it doesn't really matter that much.




If you were fortunate to get season 4's reward you might have the silver trail which is white. It's a beautiful trail, fits very well in TW presets.

You don't have to match the trail to you car's paint. Sometimes you can get cool looks by mixing colors.

Choosing your car's noise

Choose the one you like the most! Unfortnatley it's barely noticeable even for yourself, except some really annoying sounds.

Tip!
All bodies comes with a unique engine sound and it adds to your inventory to use in other cars.

Choosing a goal explosion

Pick any. It's not part of the car.

TL;DR

Have this in mind: You don't need to buy expensive items. The DLC's alone gives you some great material to come up with nice cars.


Titanium White and Black are your firends! try to go for them. Sometimes gray can be too.


look for "invisible" items as Black Revenant and Black Ion. If they have no color they go well with everything.

Getting the items (feat. Trading 101)

If you are here only for the pics skip ahead, lots of text incoming.

Here is the most difficult part, getting the items. Do the following and you'll be good:

Get to know how much stuff worth

The best reference is saijuxx's site[rl.insider.gg]. Avoid selling for less that that, unless you want to do a quicksell, avoid paying more that that, unless you want to do a quickbuy (I'll explain this below).

Aquiring something valuable

To get valuable stuff you can trade for the items you want must play the game, the more you play the game the more you'll be able to afford. Look for:

• Painted toppers: some like painted cat ears and halo can worth a bunch of keys);
  
• Event crates;
  
• Crates, specially the current one;

Aquiring keys

Aquire keys. Here's some ways:

• Buy at least 5 keys, buying just one isn't worthy;
  
• Sell crates in bulks;
  
• Sell painted hats;
  
• Trade up uncommon to rare to very rare non crate items. After collecting 2-3 very rare non crate items trade them for a key.

Trading

There is three channels I'll reccomend for trading:

• For trading I reccomend Rocket League Garage[rocket-league.com], there you can search for posts for the trades you want and make trade posts too.
  
• Not as efficient as Rocket League Garage but it's a place where you can get good deals, official Rocket League trading steam forum.
  
• This site compiles all trades in all platforms (Steam forum, rocket league garage, discord groups, etc.) in one place and shows to you if teh trade is good (the greenier the best) or bad (reddier), rl trade finder[www.rl-trades.com].

Be aware: low end items like decals and sometimes even painted decals you can manage to trade item for item, with no keys envolved (I'm talking about items <1 keys to 2 if you're lucky) but high end items (2+keys) you must trade with keys as nobody will accept items unless when overpaying.

Tip!
Quicksell usually is a good thing. It's a dude who needs keys in a hurry so they are selling for a lower price to sell fast but be aware that most of them say they are quickselling but are selling for the regular price. See Saijuxx's site[rl.insider.gg] as reference for prices.
Quickbuying is the inverse of quickselling, the dude is paying above market price to buy quickly. It's rare to see a quickbuy cause you can just purchase at the market the item you are looking for the normal price so the only reason to do this is when you want a rare item.

Opening crates

It's a huge gamble. You have 1 in 100 chance of getting a black market and even lower chances if you want a specific item with specific paint. But let's take a black market (BM) for example. You want a specific black market, so the chances are 1 in 100 of getting a BM and 1 in 5 to get the specific BM (usually there is 4 to 5 BM's per crate) so there is 1 in 500 chance of getting it, which means you get it in 500 tries which equals to 500 keys. The most expensive not painted BM cost around 50, so, I think you got my point.

In a nutshell I don't reccomend opening crates. Instead use the key you would spend and trade it for the item you want. Sometimes you can get the painted item you want for as little as 1 key, or, if it's a decal, even less.

But if you are feeling lucky, open some crates, maybe after that you might not need this guide anymore haha...

Tip!
Is trading too much of a hassle? I agree with you. If you watch the Rocket league Twitch channel[www.twitch.tv] you are entitled to get exclusive drops and painted stuff for free! Just make sure to first link your steam account at Rocket League Fan Rewards site[rewards.rocketleague.com].

Tip!
Rocket Pass is a quick and great option to get a lot of painted items. After the tier 70 all items are painted and they do not drop duplicated. And it's virtually free because you can get back all the keys you invested at tier 120.

Thank you for reading!

Thanks for reading or enjoying the pics I took. I really had fun making this guide. If you want to thank me for this guide donate me (Bawss) any item (I would really appreciate painted decals) and I'll feature it in here with your name.

Thanks VultuRe for Saffron Chantico


Thanks VultuRe for Pink Funnybook

Steal my car!

So you liked that car huh? I no de wey. Lemme show you how to make it.

Pattern

Body - Decal - Base Paint (C,L)/Accent (C,L) - Wheels - Boost - Trail - Topper - Antenna

Observations:

• If it has an X in the slot is because it's not shown in the photo.
  
  
• (C,L) is Column, Line. For example, Semigloss (3,2) is this paint:
  
  

Car list in appearance order

NOT YET - WIP
Please bear in mind: rocket launched a color update that increased the color range so most of the colors are wrong. The cars with updated color grids have the team assigned after the body.

Choosing a body

Choosing a decal

Choosing colors and paint job

Choosing a wheel

Choosing a boost

Choosing a topper

Choosing an antenna

Choosing a trail

Choosing your car's noise

Choosing a goal explosion

1. Octane - Dune Racer - Semigloss (7,4)/Matte (1,7) - Cobalt chakrams - X - X - Crimson Cromulon
   
2. Breakout Type-s - Crimson Smore'd - Glossy (1,3)/Glossy (1,7) - Saffron SLK - Saffron Power-shot
   
3. Takumi RXT - Skullface - Metallic (4,1)/Toon matte (4,1) - Carriage - Burnt sienna Power-shot - X - Hot rocks
   
4. Endo - X - Glossy (8,7)/Glossy (1,1) - Oem
   
5. Endo - X - Sun Damaged (8,7))/Glossy (1,1) - Oem
   
6. Octane - X - Furry (2,6)/Toon matte (1,7) - Black SLK - X - X - Forest green wildcat ears
   
7. Endo - MG88 - MG88(8,7)/MG88 (1,7) - Zippy
   
8. Mantis - Black Critters - Glossy (8,1)/Glossy (1,1) - Black SLK
   
9. Dominus - MDGA - Glossy (7,1)/Glossy (1,7) - Almas
   
10. Dominus - Titanium White MDGA - Glossy (7,1)/Glossy (1,7) - Almas
    
11. Octane - MG-88 - Mg88 (9,1)/Mg88 (1,1) - Titanium White SLK - X - X - Halo
    
12. Octane - Tech - Glossy (6,6)/Glossy(1,1) - SLK - X - X - Snowboards
    
13. Octane - Kilowatt - Kilowatt(3,3)/Kilowatt(4,4) - Orange Turbine
    
14. Mantis - Hammerhead - Metallic Pearl (1,7)/Glossy(1,7) - Grimalkin
    
15. Road Hog - Flames - Pearlescent(8,7)/Metallic(1,7) - Mountaineer - X - Fallen Tree
    
16. Road Hog XL - Camo(1,1)/Toon Wood(1,7) - OEM
    
17. Road Hog XL - Camo(1,1)/Zebra(1,7) - OEM
    
18. Dominus GT - Saffron Splatter - Glossy(1,3)/Glossy(1,7) - Saffron SLK
    
19. Dominus GT - Saffron Splatter - Glossy(8,7)/Glossy(1,7) - Saffron SLK
    
20. Octane - Ripped Comic - Ripped Comic(7,3)/Ripped Comic(1,1) - Yuzo - Gray Blast Ray
    
21. Werewolf - ? - ?(C,L)/?(C,L) - X - Proton
    
22. Grog - Stripes - Corroded metal(3,3)/Corroded metal(2,6) - Grog - Sandstorm - Hot Rocks
    
23. Road Hog - Wildfire - Glossy (8,7)/Glossy(1,7) - Foreman
    
24. Takumi - Reiko - Metallic(2,7)/Carbon Fiber(1,6) - Trahere
    
25. Takumi - Reiko - Pearlescent(8,6)/Carbon Fiber(1,6) - Trahere
    
26. Merc - Narwhal - Carbon Fiber (10,3)/ Toon matte(1,1) - Gearlock - X - Season 4 Silver
    
27. Octane (Blue Team) - X - Pearlescent (Matte) (8,2)/Semigloss(15,2) - Reactor - Power-shot - Default - Planetoid
    
28. Octane (Orange team) - X - Pearlescent (Matte) (7,5)/Semigloss(12,4) - Reactor - Power-shot - Default - Planetoid
    
29. Breakout (Blue team) - Vice - Glossy(5,3)/Glossy(13,1) - Equalizer - Sandstorm - Classic - Pink Surfboard
    
30. Body - Decal - Base Paint (C,L)/Accent (C,L) - Wheels - Boost - Trail - Topper -
    
    

    Donations

    
    
31. Octave (Blue team) - Saffron Chantico - Metallic Pearl (7,2)/Glossy(1,7) - Ripper - Flamethrower Yellows - Zigzag
    
32. Octane ZSR (Blue team) - Pink Funnybook - Metallic Pearl (10,1)/Camo(1,7) - Gaiden - Plasma - Classic
    
33. Body - Decal - Base Paint (C,L)/Accent (C,L) - Wheels - Boost - Trail - Topper -
    
34. Body - Decal - Base Paint (C,L)/Accent (C,L) - Wheels - Boost - Trail - Topper -

[hacked by SHb00t]

Nice Guide! Thanks

[Colorized]

sarpbc actually

[Illegal Poptart]

this is just superacrobaticrocketpoweredbattlecars 2, also known as sarpb
come on guys
wake up

[Hugh Mungus]

Really great guide. Absolutley amazing for a more casual user. Thank you for putting this together.

[Boss]

Thanks man, I'll work on it right now! I really appreciate. My main language is portuguese, but has the same roots from spanish, nice observation! I'll check out the video too.

[Hugh Mungus]

Another mistake you made was at the end of the page before you started listing the cars. In the last sentence you wrote "The cars with updated color grid has the team assigned after the body" but because there are multiple cars there are multiple grids and has would be replaced with have because of the change. Here's what it should say "The cars with updated color grids have the team assigned after the body."

[Hugh Mungus]

I assume your first language is spanish becuase "en" means on or in so I can get why its a tough thing to learn. It is very difficult to learn; I would assume. Here is a video link that is alright for this, but is a little basic. There a quite a few exceptions to what he said so if you really want to learn this I would recomend watching, reading, or talking to someone, more about it. Just remember there are a lot to learn about in, on, and at so its harder than most things to learn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN5H7YTo_IQ

[Hugh Mungus]

At the end of the first paragraph of body pricing you put "in how to trade" but the correct wording would be "on how to trade". You could also say "on trading" because its its a present tense verb although most people will do it with any verb tense. Glad to help.

[Marquisse]

looking for octane CRL northern decal

[Naruke]

damm i need that kilowatt decal now