I have good news! You found a lamp lying on the ground and after rubbing it, an oil-covered genie appeared! Even better, this ghostly wish-granting broseph just gave you exactly $135,220. Look, I don’t know why the genie didn’t give you an even $135,000. Maybe it started off as $136,000 but he had to take a finder’s fee. Either way, you now have a cool $135,220 in your bank account. You could do the responsible thing and invest this money, pay off bills, buy property, or do whatever is considered to be adulting. However, you’re an Autopian, and you’ve been inspired by David rebuilding his car collection in California or by me and my fleet of aging German disasters.
If given exactly $135,220, what cars and how many of them would you buy? Since I love boats, motorcycles, planes, and trains, those will be acceptable, too.
This oddly specific dollar figure comes from the mind of Matt Hardigree. See, our Publisher has fallen into the trap of playing with a car configurator. Today, he configured a Porsche 911 Carerra T, a lovely sleek sports car with a starting price of $124,900. For that price, you’re getting a 911 992 with a rear-mounted 3.0-liter twin-turbo flat-six good for 379 HP. Spec the car with the Sport Chrono Package and a manual transmission for a sprint to 60 mph in 4.3 seconds, 3.8 with a PDK. Sounds fun!
Matt’s spec would include Ruby Star Neo paint ($3,270), a smooth pink-ish color. He also added in the Front Axle Lift system ($2,770) and picked the manual transmission option and some other bits. Honestly, that’s not important. What’s important is what vehicle thing would you do with $135,220 burning a hole in your pocket?
The first thing I would do is buy a Smart Crossblade, like this one currently for sale in New Jersey for $59,622.
Admittedly, I’d haggle on that price, but mint condition examples of the Crossblade have been selling for around $50,000 for at least a decade. Why would I pay that much for a Smart? Well, it is the Holy Grail of all Smarts. The Crossblade was a concept car put into limited production with less than 2,000 units known to exist. It’s not just all show, either, as Smart waterproofed the interior so you could drive the thing in the rain, or through a car wash.
Anyway, with my prized Smart in possession, I’d next run down the list of my dream motorcycles.
I’ll also want a Honda CBX, which will likely run around $12,500 for one in decent shape. Of course, I have to get a Royal Enfield Diesel. We’ll say that’ll set me back $5,000. No motorcycle collection would be complete without a Hayes M1030M1 jet fuel military bike. And beside them all will be a Suzuki RE-5 rotary motorcycle for about $8,500.
Surprisingly, that leaves me with $49,558 in the bank. A really nice Volkswagen Phaeton W12 will set me back about $20,000. I’d spend the rest of it on imports like an MGF roadster, an Autozam AZ-1, and a Smart Fortwo with a manual transmission.
Matt theoretically would spend that $135,220 on just a single car. I could score four rare motorcycles and five cars for that price. What would you buy with $135,220?
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The fact I don’t have space for these has zero impact on my choices. Here we go:
C4 ZR1- $30k
1946-1947 Packard Super Clipper- $25000(ish)
Mercedes CL600 W140- $15000
Porsche 997 S- $50000
Lincoln Mark III- $15000
Late to the party but I would find and buy my grandfather’s old Porshe 356C and get it restored if it hasn’t been already. That would be about $70K but worth every penny of it for the memories that car brings back.
After that a Ford F100 step-side not sure the going rate on those now but I have always had a love for them.
And oddly enough I have one of my favorites already, but it needs a lot of love after traversing almost 300K miles. 2001 BMW Z3 with the M54 2.5i. I would spend the money it needed to be back in the glory days of it’s life. Like the Bond car it was in Golden Eye only in a sweet red color instead of silver.
Do a proper re-restoration of my 1932 Chevrolet, $15K, Take my 2004 Silverado 1500 to Quality Body, for a complete body job. Go through the mechanicals on the same car, Total $15K. My 2019 Cadillac CT6 will get a wrap in dark emerald green and a top shelf detailing, $5K.
Find the cleanest best running TR3B money can buy $55 – 65K.
Find and build the best BMW R90 with sidecar known to man $50K.
Whoops, I’m over budget by at least $20K. Oh well, I’ll finance the balance!
1 – Audi B7 S4 avant 6mt
1,000,000 shit box manual hatchbacks
So, I guess, a million and one cars
$10,000 into Aptera’s investment fund guaranteeing me one of the first 2,000 of the solar EV tricycles
$36,000 for the Aptera (if they can keep the price there—a Volvo EX30 is the backup plan)
$15,000 for a complete restoration of my ’67 A-H Sprite MkIV
$4,000 for a new Honda Super Cub
$38,000 for a new Prius Prime (for long trips)
$17,000 A used Chevy Bolt for my daughter (after tax rebate for used EVs)
$15,000 Complete home solar and battery storage system to power my EVs
Toyota 4runner so I have a way to get the hell out of Dodge in a crisis in a vehicle that won’t break. Also road trips and hauling stuff.
Miata RF because it’s the greatest sports car on earth.
1967 Buick Riviera GS in black over black. So cool.
Chrome bumper Citroen CX for the fantastic dashboard. It will never run right but I have a 4runner.
Used Chevy Volt for commuting.
My daily is a Fiesta ST, which is lots of fun and practical enough to be a primary vehicle, but it’s not a great road trip car and completely useless for hauling large things. I’d probably put about $10,000 in to taking it further in the toy direction with the standard bolt-ons, tune, coilovers, fresh bushings, and maybe some chassis stiffening. I already have upgraded tires, pads, and rotors.
The daily driver role would then be taken over by a second-gen Chevy Volt which seem to go for around $15k. All my normal day to day driving could happen on EV mode but unlike cheap used entry level EVs like the Leaf it’s useful for more than just our day to day errands and commuting needs.
For road trips and hauling large things I’d pick up a 3/4 ton 2010+ Express/Savana conversion van with 4×4 and a raised roof, which look to run around $50k.
That’s roughly $75k spent so far filling out my car wants/needs, with $60,220 left in the budget.
I’d use around $30k of that on a nice large travel trailer to pull behind the van, another $7500 on a folding utility trailer for dirty things I don’t want to put inside the van.
Roughly another $15,000 on bikes with two cruiser-style e-bikes for my girlfriend and I, an e-MTB for me, and 1Up Super Duty rack for all three.
That leaves just over $7500 to refresh the tires/suspension/brakes on all the used vehicles and maybe have some left over to put some upgrades in the van and RV.
I figure if boats, motorcycles, planes, and trains are good then trailers and bikes (especially e-bikes) are fair game.
I’d buy an Evora GT and a new Prius.
Maybe a poverty spec Lucid and one of the new landcruisers when they start selling? I’d be cutting it close, but if the numbers worked I’d dump my BRZ and clapped out 4runner so I could blow more $$ on my c10.
Three. I’d buy my wife and I nice new dailies and then a super sweet fun car for the weekends and road trips.
I’d find the best Buick Regal TourX I could find for my daily driver. Take some to redo the interior on my ’05 GTO. I’d obliterate my non-mortgage debt and invest the rest. Boring, but it’s what I’d do.
Almost had the TourX on my list. I see quite a few around town—they’re pretty sweet.
I like Mike B’s answer, but it’s outside the terms of the question, which implies “you must use this money to buy more vehicles” 🙂
I’ve already got an air-cooled 911, so check. First thing I’d buy is probably a Citroen DS, a really nice one like a late injected DS23 Pallas or something, so let’s say $50k. Then, because there is complete overlap between Citroen fans and Tatra fans, I’d buy a Tatra 603. After that I’d go buy something old, huge, and American, like a ’67 Fleetwood 60 Special Brougham or a ’62 Eldorado convertible. So, three.
If someone gave me 135K, I would buy zero vehicles. My 4Runner runs well, and with an additional 135k in the bank, I’d worry less about fuel costs.
I have this burning desire to no longer rent, so I would use that money to get myself into a small, single-family home, preferably with at least a 1-stall garage.
While I rent, I consider myself “broke”, and any additional vehicle purchases are just frivolous.
EDIT: Or maybe I’d use the money to move myself to a country that isn’t an absolute shit show.
A z51 vette, with some options, $89k
And a new Honda Pilot Sport AWD for family duty. $45k
done.
I would buy one hot wheel Volkswagen beetle and give the rest to Torch, writing in the for line: fuck the American healthcare system.
Very generous of you! And yes, fuck our garbage (so-called) healthcare system.
I was happy to see people being generous to help him, while being enraged that it was even necessary at all. We have endless money for war, but tens of millions with no healthcare, and millions more buried under medical debt.
Have a decent, 3 vehicle reliable, functional fleet now. Wife is due for a new car and I want to go EV or PHEV, the old car will head to the 18 yo daughter. I would love a small manual convertible (Miata/Z3/TT) but don’t want or need new. Also have a hankering for a malaise era personal luxury barge (see user name). So…Tesla Model 3, Gen 2-3 Miata and a clean 1978 Thunderbird with proper options. That would also leave enough left over to upgrade the family SUV.
I don’t have room for more vehicles unfortunately, so I’d either trade in my Bimmer as well and get something real nice with the ~150k total, or I’d use that money to buy some property that I might one day be able to park more vehicles on…
If I had some space, I’d love to get an RF Miata… I think I could probably swing the Miata spec I want with a lower-spec C8 and still have enough left over to get a beater Ranger 🙂
I have a feeling some of you will question why I’d want an RF and a C8, seeing as how they both would fill my “are you having a midlife crisis?” spot right now… the RF would be be manual, the C8 automatic, because ADHD. When I’m by myself, having something intrinsically tying my brain to everything the car is doing is bliss, but when I’ve got someone with me (or for the times when I have to drive to DC for work and deal with stop-n-go traffic) It’s easier on my brain to be slightly less engaged, but I still want it to have some fun-power.
The ranger is just because I need a truck but just can’t convince the girlfriend to let me park one in the yard, and I’m not going to daily a truck when I can only have one vehicle.
So, assuming this genie isn’t taking into account any cars you already may have, and you can keep whatever you already have and just use this ~$135k however your want for vehicles, Matt’s right. “The more you own, the more it owns you.” Keep it simple with one amazing one (T seems to be universally loved based on nearly all reviews out there) vs. a new fleet of vehicles that will consume your time and money in upkeep. While he’s driving “worry-free” (warranty for awhile), the fleet will own your life. In fact, I think I’m going to go find a T. (when the Genie arrives) Thanks Matt. 😉