I was thinking about creating a mage getaway driver/smuggler for an upcoming campaign. I'm at work and don't have any books with me. Would it be possible, rules-wise to bind a spirit to the engine of a car or the car itself to get bonuses to vehicle stats?

spirits of certain traditions get the inhabitation power don't they?
they just have to overcome object resistance and then they are the car . .
think knight-rider more or less . .
but why do that, if you can simply give an ally-spirit the car-form as an optional form? *g*

I've never played a mage before, so I'm not too up-to-date with the rules on spirits and binding and such. I just thought the idea of a car powered by demons sounded badass.

nah, wrong type of vehicle . . fire-spirit-powered motorbike and possessed driver-mage, and there you have ghostrider for example ^^
some spirit with 3D movement power to possess a car with under-slung lightning and voila, a flying delorean *g* ^^

Or use a Beast Spirit to get some REAL Horsepower under the hood, and a TRUE Tiger in the tank!

ok cancan, that's 5$ for the bad play of words bucket! *g*

I strongly recommend several hybrid merge ally spirit vehicles with walker modifications. Your first should be a semi truck, of course. "Autobots, transform and roll out".

Yeahy, it is possible using SR4 possession and inhabitation.

Haggard: "Truckasaurus, here I come!" - Battlefield: Bad Company

under SR4 MANY Toys have become possible . . but even with the ability to now build a Hover-Board and a flying Delorean i will still not play that wreteched system *g*

MANY toys indeed!

Including... THE TRUBBLE BUBBLE!

Sadly, the walker mod can only be used with vehicles with body of 10 or less

Yeah, that's before magic comes into play.

*Waves Hand* "Abra-cah-frag-ya! Hockus-Drekus! There, it works! My Spirit of Man just possessed that Red Cabover Transport and used it's powers to turn it into a giant robot with the voice of Peter Cullen!"

and the lighter than air?
does that one have the less than x body restriction?
i am now picturing a floating warship *g*

Actually, one of my Players and I are doing a work in progress on that exact thing.

The one thing about your mage smuggler you might want to consider is that it won't be a free ride. Just because you might go into the astral portal with your car (ash?) does not mean you will be able to avoid all danger. The astral plane as all sorts of critters and spirits and other things that go bump in the night, not to mention that many countries have mages and spirits pulling border patrol.

Yeah, but the holes in their security net are larger than the ones in the physical network.