Re: Chop Shop?!?
Though money can make it easier, it is not a decider. There are players who finished UG without spending a dime in the game. I have VIP level 3 expired, since I bought 3 montly gold cards during the course of the game. And considering buying two more to make vip benefits permanent (it is quite handy to have more fuel available when you wake up 🙂 ).
Anyway, you do not need to max out a lot of cars in the course of the game, I'd say Impreza, Mustang, AMG and McLaren. There are of course other cars you'll have to use as well, both in Tuner Trials and in Car Series to get new parts, blueprints and other goodies, but no need to max them out. Viper is the most important, Supra and P911 (991) the others to reach for higher ranked parts.