How do I get started on car design? How do I become a car designer?

Pledge to never, ever create a design with a hubless wheel. Realize that enormous numbers of constraints are obsolete with the emerging dominance of electric cars. Realize that internal combustion cars will peak and start diminishing early in your career. Accept that some of the ideas and designs you most love will be torn apart by the cruel laws of physics. Accept that the majority of car design involves minor changes in things like door handles between model years. Learn 3d modeling, photorealistic rendering and rapid prototyping techniques. Repeat number one.

Great start, You're also going to want to build a portfolio of designs with lots of process work. vehicle concepting isn't too hard, to learn but mastering it takes years. The key to good vehicle concepts is to use a speed lines to build the form, this is opposed to something like isometric drawing which you may be more familiar with, having a background in 3D. You'll want to have a straight, 3/4, side view, rear view all of the same design. Notice this last one doesn't have the same spontaneous line quality that the others have? that's the difference between a concept and a render.

Car designers tend to fall into two categories: Dreamers and Realists. Some guys can spend their whole careers in advanced studios do "wallpaper", designing cars that never see the light of day. But when when of their concept cars does make it to an auto show turntable, they inspire us to keep dreaming. The realists are not too concerned with designing cars that can fly or go 400 mph. They want to see their stuff on the road, in real life. Car designers that come over from product or industrial design tend to fall into this category and make excellent car designers because so much of what is car design is, in essence product or industrial design. Given that you are a masters student, I would think your overall drawing ability it pretty high. If that is the case, then you just have to apply that skill set to designing cars. I would be sure to work on interior and exterior ideas. One way of getting a feel for what it's going to take to make the jump to car design would be to sign up for a few sessions of this tutoring service - http://www.howtodrawcars.netThe instructor is an award winning car designer and the feedback alone on where you are vs. were you want to go would be worth it.  Here's a sample of how it works. You'd be much farther along than the drawing in the video but it will give you a sense of how this might work for you. It's worth a look. Good luck!

If in the USA, think about attending Art Center College of Design or Center for Creative Studies to put yourself in the best position at landing a job in the industry.

Automotive design (not engineering, but design) tends to be a combination of forms and functions. You have to understand the specific constraints, but from then on you have to be aware of form and flow. It's not enough to just learn how to draw or sketch ideas, you must also learn to discover how the form works, how the highlights move, how the forms flow together. There is nothing better to learning the reality of highlights and form than building clay models. I was a student at The Art Center College of Design, arguably the best automotive design school in the world. The teachers are all working professionals, and a majority of the hires by top EOM automobile manufacturers have come from there. But if you are not going back to school, you have to find ways to get the same background.  Understand that learning to sketch and render beyond what you can do with a CAD program is required.  Look at some of the best work being done around the world, read the books, play with the forms. My favorite designer is still Syd Mead. You don't hear of him as a transportation designer, but every transportation designer has followed Syd Mead.

l am a car designer in China,as a Toyota car designer,what do l do is always use CATIA make 2D date and sometime make 3D model,and some of interior parts design.l didnt learn car design in the http://university.My major is machine. after graduating from the university and joined the company of toyota.After you joining the work,the company will teach you a lot,learn it carefully,and then you can learn a lot. My English is poor. l hope we can be friends. great wish to you.