In my opinion , high polycount doesn't certainly give a high quality , maybe we can put them on a cool damage model (not a engine anymore!) , it's a challenge to make an unregular mesh on the sidepod and finally make a damage shape.
and you can get a much higher quality with a low polycount by many methods , e.g manual normals fixing , I did this on my 2000 cars and this way it saved at least 40% on polycount .I'd better know a high-polycount means it will be more difficult when you can making LODs , sometimes you will find it's impossible to cut polys over 50% if you are making it for LOD1 cause your way made the shape has already sentenced it.
Most of the time , high polycount are only useful on t-cam view.
A
Racing and
Rail fan.