Design a Virtual Car

Whenever you're searching for a new car online, it's nice to have an opportunity to design a virtual car with the appearance and features that you want. Many car manufacturers offer a feature where you can customize your car and see a virtual version of your new car. It's a lot of fun to design a virtual car like this before you buy.

This screen shows the PonyBuilder website (a custom parts retailer) which allows you to design a nice Mustang in any model and with any features that you want.

Each choice to design your virtual car offers a pop-up window with various options. This window gives you choices such as what color to paint your car, spoiler design, side and hood styles and other features. As you make your choices, the car pictured in the main window changes the design automatically, so you can see exactly what your virtual car looks like.

As you change the design of your virtual Mustang, you can rotate the car to see the front and back. By rotating the car, you can see how your changes look from all angles.

You can sometimes design a virtual car by going directly to the car manufacturer website. For example, MINI offers an interactive Mini Cooper design page where you can design your own virtual Mini Cooper to see how the optional features look before you decide what options to choose with your new Mini Cooper.

As you go through the Mini Cooper virtual design page and choose what features and options that you want on your new car, the online flash application provides the details about each update and shows you how those new options look on your virtual car.

The neat thing about designing a car at the Mini Cooper site is that you can even redesign the inside of the car and see how those features look too! When you're happy with how your new virtual car looks, you can check out the estimated price for a real version of it! When you're happy with how your car looks, you can get an estimated price of what it would cost to buy the real version of your virtual Mini Cooper!

Honda also offers a very useful tool at their website that lets you create a virtual Honda Odyssey (or any other model). First you select which model you'd like to create and it will display that exact model for you.

As you go through each of the options that are available for the Honda Odyssey, the virtual design tool interactively adds that feature to your vehicle. You can view how your new virtual car looks from both the front and the rear. If you like your vehicle (and the price) click on more options to find a dealer and purchase your customized car!

Toyota has a similar virtual car creator where you can modify the color, trim and accessories and see how those options change the appearance inside and outside your virtual Toyota.

The Toyota tool lets you turn your virtual car all the way around 360 degrees so that you can see it from every single angle. There's also an "internal view" where you can see what the interior looks like and how the accessories change the inside of the car as well.

If you enjoy customizing your car and changing its appearance, make sure to check out Design Your Own Custom Car and Customize Your Own Car for more ideas and options.