The way I see it, cars that have none or not much power potential are the ones that get all riced up.
If you want to go fast, you start with a car that's fast in stock form! As simple as that. Cars like a Mustang, an F-body, a GN, a Turbo DSM, a Supra, a turbo Mopar, an RX-7, a turbo VW, a Type-R, etc...
What kind of reliable power can you make on, oh say, a Civic DX for $3000? With this kind of money, you'll run 12's or 13's all day long with a car that has potentiel to start with. If you need to swap motors in order to run 15's or 16's, then you have a problem.
Besides, it doesn't take half a brain to put mags and pseudo performance parts on a car (like a $500 P-flow, $1000 cam gears, etc). However, making fast/reliable power is much more involving.
Also, with booming sound systems, mags, pseudo-performance parts, you don't risk making your car unreliable.