Yes you're right, I use an off camera flash to light the car. Ideally I'd use 2 or more flashes but for the time being I only have 1. Usually I fire off 3 separate photos with different part of the car lit in each one then combine them in photoshop to get the car as evenly lit as possible.
It's not as expensive as you might think though. I got a new flash, wireless triggers, batteries and a light stand for about £100 in total.
Having more flashes would make things a lot easier, I've got my eye on some on ebay at the moment so I should be adding to my collection soon.
