Is it possible to assemble a kit-car / locost thing for $0?

Like, if you're willing to go mid-engined and base it off something like a Mark III VW, then yeah. It's entirely plausible. Stampie pointed it out with the rule "Any four-wheeled, production-based vehicle that was originally sold as a passenger vehicle is allowed." Now I haven't read any deeper into it, but the vehicle produced would have four wheels, be based off of a production car, and is technically a passenger vehicle as long as it's road-legal, carries at least one passenger, but has less than 9 seats (at least according to OECD, which the US is a part of). As long as it meets budged and can then be registered as a homebuilt, it can be in just about any shape or configuration you want. Since you're the manufacturer, it would be a limited-production car that can very well be sold as a passenger vehicle. It would probably be something Smokey Yunick would do, but it fits the "all original body panels" and "four-wheeled production-based vehicle that was originally sold as a passenger vehicle" criteria.

In reply to G_Body_Man:

That was exactly what I was thinking. Flippin a FWD car around, Toyota did it with the mr2, didn't they?

In reply to NoPermitNeeded:

And Pontiac with the Fiero. My idea was just drop the subframe out of like a clean Mark 2 Golf or whatever and then just clean and sell the shell for maximum profit.

I got a "some assembly required" Locost for the sum of $0. Even included a drivetrain from a Nissan 240sx. It was publicly advertised too.

Still need to finish welding some of the frame and start bolting things onto it.

In reply to G_Body_Man:

That would be a helluva challenge car

In reply to NoPermitNeeded:

Or, better yet, buy a supercharged Buick. 240 horses in a car so worthless, you can pillage it as much as you want and still make the money back by selling the tires and scrapping the shell. They also make wicked power once you put on a smaller pulley.