Yahoo Autos Here's $111,000. Buy whichever (and how many) cars you want
Admittedly, we've done this concept before, but it was fun and I figured it was about time we tried it again but with more money to play with. Because, you know, everything's more fun when you've got more money to play with. Even if it's totally fake money, but whatever.
The concept is simple: we're getting a bunch of fake money to buy whichever and how many new or used cars we want. The main rule is we have to restart our garages off from scratch, as in we have to pretend the cars we currently own all met some tragic end. This is to even the playing field, so to speak.
As such, we could go any number of ways here based on needs and personal preferences for cars and how we like to spend money. We could blow the whole pot on one perfect car. We could spend most of it on a new family vehicle and leave some for a fun used choice. We could go the Costco method and buy in bulk with the most used cars possible, and with $111,000 to play with, that's a lot of cheap used cars. Last time, none of our editors put the entire pot on one car, and no one bought more than three. Let's see what happens.
Rules:
You are starting this garage from scratch. You can't rely on the cars you currently own, though I suppose you could buy them back.
Federal EV tax credits do not count. You're not getting an extra $7,500 to play with.
1995 Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet
2019 BMW i3 S
2001 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD 4x4
Senior Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski: I'm following a similar pattern as the last time we virtually did this exercise. One fun car — in this case a Porsche 911 Carrera 4 Cabriolet — one eco-efficient daily driver and one four-door, four-wheel-drive pickup truck. Porsche's 993 was the final air-cooled 911-badged model, and it's always been a personal favorite of mine. This one is white with a beautiful blue top and interior, with a manual transmission sending power to all four wheels. I don't expect it will depreciate much from its current price in the high $60,000 range.
The eco warrior this time is a BMW i3 S with the optional range extender engine. I found a bunch of lightly used models that would fit the bill for around $20,000, and I liked the blacked-out look on the funky i3. With its 120ah battery back, it will provide more than enough range for my around-town driving duties, and if I need to travel a bit further, there's a gasoline engine lurking at the rear that can give me a bit more distance.
Finally, I found this clean Chevy Silverado 2500HD 4x4 truck for sale with around 100,000 miles, and the big 'ol 8.1-liter V8 and solid Allison automatic transmission. It's also right around $20,000 and change.
2000 BMW M5 in Imola Red
2023 Kia Niro EV Wave
2009 Honda Ridgeline RTL (Modified)
Senior Editor James Riswick: My priority list isn't terribly different from Jeremy's. The two first choices were easy. For my wife's car, which shall also be our household daily driver for errand running and occasional trips to the office, I'm just going to buy back her actual car, a Niro EV Wave. Quite frankly, because she likes it. It's the right size, enough range, abundant equipment, and the given the capabilities of the other cars, it would be a waste of fake money to opt for a pricier EV with more power or utility. Price tag is $45,925. The second choice, which effectively replaces my beloved Z3 as my fun car, is one of my all-time favorites: the 2000 BMW M5. Specifically in Imola Red. I already have the scale model in my office, this would add the real thing to the garage. I'm budgeting $38,900 for this. You don't need to spend anywhere close to that for an E39 M5, but with all this fake money on hand, I'm going to buy the best one possible, and two Imola Reds with low miles recently sold on Bring a Trailer for about that price. Here's one of them. My final car is our road trip / outdoor adventure trip to Oregon vehicle. I pondered this A LOT. Way too much.
I could spend the entire $26,575 remaining on this Bursting Blue Metallic Volvo XC90 T6 R-Design that would be perfect for the road trip driving element given its comfort and modern equipment (adaptive cruise control on two-lane highways is clutch), while satisfying my desire for something cool (Bursting Blue, hello!). Downside: more maintenance costs, depreciation and the fact I really wouldn't drive it that much given the EV and, hello, an M5. Didn't seem like the best use of fake money. That got me thinking about this XC90 instead: a 2007 with the Yamaha V8 and also-cool red paint job. It's only $8,999, which would leave me $17,000 for a fourth modern classic of some sort. But then, it has 158,000 miles, and despite seemingly being in fantastic shape, is that really such a great idea for driving through serviceless portions of rural Oregon? Um, no. That maintenance and reliability issue led me to my final trail of thought. I love me some 4Runners, but they are LOL expensive, and I'd be looking at 2011 Limiteds with 100,000 miles at my budget. I just wasn't feeling that. The smarter move would be to buy one of the many well-equipped, low miles Honda Passports available, and in real life, I'd probably do that. But this is for fun! I finally settled on a first-generation Honda Ridgeline. It offers the comfort and passenger space of a two-row midsize crossover, but with the bed (and trunk) of a truck that'll be great for our outdoor adventure trips, routine beach trips and to permanently store all our beach stuff. Importantly, the first-generation is so much cooler than the Pilot-with-a-bed current version, and as I can pick a good top-of-the-line RTL trim for about $18,000, I'd have a bunch of money on hand to make it cooler with a vinyl wrap and various trim pieces inspired by the Hyundai Kona Jayde Concept (though I'd also ponder Matte Pine Green or yellow). I'd also upgrade the brakes and tires. So yeah, I spent waaaaay to much time thinking about this. And writing this. But now I want a Ridgeline for reals.
