With the price of cars continually increasing as a percentage of income, what’s the possibility of an “open-source” car project?

Modern car companies are no longer manufacturers in the way that they were 50 years ago. They could be more accurately be referred to as component integrators. Most of the components in the car are manufactured elsewhere. The entire dash, seats, lighting components, engine control systems, transmissions, etc are all manufactured by third-party suppliers. The automaker designs the automobile and then sends their plans out to these component suppliers for the actual manufacturing. Further, the designs themselves are actually *heavily* influence by the component suppliers. You don't get to just design whatever you want and drop it on these suppliers. The designs are submitted for feasibility long before they are committed to. All of these component suppliers rely on incumbent automakers as their primary customers, so good luck getting them to sell you a dashboard or lighting element cheaper than they're already selling to one of the incumbents. The result will be a car that is *much* more expensive than what you can buy in the market now. The problem with the automotive market isn't manufacturer driven; it's consumer driven. So long as you have a long line of consumers willing to sign up for $750/mo car payments for 84 months, manufacturers will keep producing automobiles that fit that financing arrangement. That means SUVs with fancy infotainment, heated seats, LED lights, panoramic sun-roofs, etc. Also FWIW, you can buy a Mitsubishi Mirage starting at $17k. Mitsubishi is likely to pull the plug on that model (in the US market) in the near future, because no one buys them. Consumers cry out that they want cheaper cars, but no one buys them. You can't eat your cake and have it too.