I need low-poly car models under 10k triangles but everywhere I looked only gives me severely geometric ones, ones that are behind a paywall, or non-downloadable. So I thought to take matters into my own hands and try low-poly modeling cars but realized I don’t know jackrabbit about car modeling. Any advice anyone can give me about how to go about doing it?
- Practice. Your first Cars are going to look horrible, but that’s fine.
- Go find some tutorials
- use for top- front and side-views of cars for modeling reference. There’s also plenty blueprints online and those are easy to work with.
- use crases: you can mark specific edges using creases to preserve them, if you’re using surface subdivision (so you don’t need to use a ton of supporting edges)
- don’t be shy to reuse parts of other models to save time
- be economical and clever about your polygons. Make sure to have more polygons in areas, that are clearly visible in the silhouette of your model (so Spoilers, mirrors, tires and so on) and don’t be shy to have bodgy topology in cases, where it isn’t that visible (flat surfaces)
- when you are using normal maps, you can get away with even more bodgy topology, since a normal map can compensate for some artefacts caused by minimizing polycount
- you can also use a clean high poly model to bake better looking normals into a mesh with artefacts due to auto generated normals using the data-transfer modifier.
- if you are careful and clever about it, you might even be able to use the decimate modifier to optimize your mesh. But you’ll likely want to preserve some edge by marking them as seams and also use normalmaps or baked normals to get rid of some ugly artefacts.
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You can download all kinds of high resolution cars (there are tons available for free) and then use retopology tools to create your own meshes.
That’s the most lazy way I can come up with right now.
Pros: Its easy, you don’t have to think about proportions they are already there, just polygon placement.
Its faster than starting from scratch.
If you are precise enough, you can use the high poly for normal map baking (other maps too).
Meditative workflow, you can have a movie or audiobook running in the background.
You don’t have to think too much. (seriously, who would want that?)
Contras: … 
…
none?
You just need these cars, right?
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You need to properly check the lisences!
Just because you can download a model for free doesn’t mean you are allowed to use it. You should check, if there is a lisence given, that allows you to use these models for your intended porpuse.
For example: when it comes to creative commons lisences, a lot of artists don’t want you to alter their work or use it commercially.
So if an asset were lisences as CC-NY-NC-ND 4.0 you woudln’t be able to use it in your project, if it was commercial, because NC states your work has to be non-commercial and ND states you cannot alter the assets and therefore, retopology wouldn’t be possible.
Im assuming game assests count as commercial use, right? Im not entirely sure how copyright licenses work, so
Right. I was assuming non-commercial personal usage.
Do you want to use them in an commercial way? Come on man, you must know that, we can’t tell you. 
Do you want to sell the models or are they intended to end up in an commercial product = commercial use.
If that is right you are limited to public domain, CC0 or CC-BY licenses.
just in a game, I dont intend to sell the models
The retopo way of doing it is good if you know enough about topology. If you don’t you would have to learn modelling anyways.
if it’s a non-commercial game, you can use assets lisenced for non-commercial use. If you’re making the game with the intend of making a profit, then it’s commercial…