Could you buy a 'forever' car for $68,000?

The automotive landscape is changing, but are your tastes? Do you think there's a car (or truck!) out there that might be your "forever" automobile? Better yet, can you buy it for $68,000 or less? That's this week's installment of "Here's some arbitrary amount of fake money: go buy something."

Here are the rules; they're a bit intricate this week to keep things interesting.

• Your choice will replace your existing vehicle(s) and it will be the last new car you buy. It will also be the newest car you ever buy, because while you may purchase another used car, it cannot be newer than your selected vehicle. If your needs change dramatically in 2045 for whatever reason, you are limited to the options available in 2023.

• You may not sell, trade, gift or otherwise dispose of this car. You must maintain, insure and park it for the rest of your life whether you drive it regularly or not. If you total it, Byron will hand-deliver an exact replacement to your driveway with the exact same mileage, wear and quantity of petrified farts lurking in the seat cushions. Our advice? Don't let anybody puke in it.

• You have $68,000 to spend. You may leak over that by some hundreds of dollars, but if your total before taxes and fees starts with $69, you've done it wrong. You can spend less, but remember, it's your last new car ever and whatever you don't spend at the dealer merely vanishes.

On to the staff picks!

2024 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2500 4x4

Senior Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski: Yep, I'm going with a van. I looked at all my available options that fell under our $68,000 price cap and narrowed it down to two choices, the Ford Transit Trail and the Sprinter I ended up ultimately choosing. In standard 2500-class 12-passenger form and optioned with Mercedes' four-cylinder diesel engine and all-wheel drive, the Sprinter 2500 4x4 starts around $65,000. That leaves precious few dollars to spend on options, but even in completely base form this is a very useful vehicle to park in my virtual driveway. It can seat a dozen people, or have seats removed to open up a whole heck of a lot of cargo space. The diesel powerplant's 332 pound-feet of torque can haul over 3,000 pounds of max payload or tow up to 5,000. I know from experience that the Sprinter is a comfy platform in which to watch the miles go by, and as much as I wouldn't want to deal with diesel emissions equipment over the life of the vehicle, at least I'll be rewarded with reasonable efficiency. All-wheel-drive traction will come in handy on both dirt roads in the summer and snowy roads in the winter.