Civilian Transport Vehicles

Cars

In the BattleTech Compendium you can find rules to design your own Mechs, fighters and tanks. But what happens if the party wants to go shopping etc.?
I don't think they may walk into the city with their Mechs. Tanks, helicopters and aerospace fighters also are bad solutions.
The guys in the novels don't have this problem. So why should we have it?

The rules I present here aren't perfect. If you have better rules or expansions, mail them.

There are 2 possibilities for designing cars:

1: Standard rules with expansions

This is the most obvious possibility.
You just take the standard rules for designing a tank.

Just make a tank with no armor and no weapons. Normally you will take ICE engines.
Follow the rules described in Maximum Tech for including more seats (p.73/74).
Add special equipment (see below).
Give each location 1 point of armor to reflect the "armor" of the chassis.
Calculate vehicle cost.

Advantages:

It's fast to learn.
The cars are totally compatible to normal BattleTech and Mechwarrior.

Disadvantages

The weight of the cars aren't so realistic.
There can be a truck and a Compact with the same tonnage, equipment etc.

2: Imported rules from other systems

This possibility uses rules from systems which can design "real" cars.
Of course, you have to convert them into the BattleTech/Mechwarrior system.
I took the most important rules from the "Car Wars" system (from Steve Jackson Games).
They let the players design all kinds of vehicles or cycles (including trikes).
The following list provides a raw scheme. For more detailed information and tables, click here.
The Car Wars system has taken care of the following components:

Body Type
Armor Type
Chassis
Suspension
Power Plant
Tires
Weapons and Equipment
Cargo
Acceleration and top speed