Here's $61,000. Buy whichever (and how many) cars you want

This one should be interesting. The concept is simple: you’re getting a bunch of fake money to buy whichever and however many new or used cars you want. Apart from the two rules below, it’s pretty darn easy. Well, except that I’ve kept the budget low. Forking over $600,000 would make for a kick-ass garage filled with amazing classics and exotica, but let’s save that for another day. I want to see how creative my fellow editors can get. Why $61,000 instead of $60,000? I don’t know, why not? Spice of life. 

You could go any number of ways here based on needs and personal preferences for cars and how you like to spend money. You could blow the whole pot on one perfect car. You could spend most of it on a new family vehicle and leave some for a fun used choice. You could go the Costco method and buy in bulk with the most used cars possible. I don’t know, let’s see what happens!

The 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.

1998 BMW B10 Touring 
2019 Volkswagen e-Golf SEL Premium
2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser 4WD w/ 6-Speed Manual

Senior Editor James Riswick: I swear this is just a coincidence, but for the allotted money, I could actually just rebuy the cars currently in my driveway: a 2023 Kia Niro EV Wave and a 1998 BMW Z3 2.8 Roadster. But that would be lazy. I was all ready to go down a totally different route with four cars, when I stumbled upon a jackpot: this incredible 1998 BMW B10 wagon imported for Europe and currently for sale in Florida. It’s an absolutely incredible car. First, it’s an E39 BMW 5 Series wagon with a six-speed manual transmission and a 3.2-liter inline-six good for 260 hp and 243 lb-ft of torque. Actually, that pretty much covers its awesomeness. Effectively, this would cover my desire to get a fun car with a manual transmission and a family wagon thing with a manual transmission (I was originally thinking M Roadster and FJ Cruiser). Sure, this B10 is imported from Europe and has the equivalent of 188,000 miles, but the seller says everything about it seems like it’s really 50,000. Good enough me! What an amazing find. For my wife’s car, well, she’s getting a downgrade. Sorry dear. I’m going with this 2019 Volkswagen e-Golf with only 16,000 miles for $21,488. I had originally budgeted a lot more, but this seemed like a much better zero-emissions option for around-town errands than the Audi A3 e-Tron I originally found (and she’s not as keen on the Chevy Bolt). Because of this choice, I had a lot more leftover than originally planned, so I went with something that was still fun and could be used family adventures that might be iffy for the 25-year-old Alpina. The Toyota FJ Cruiser is one of my all-time favorites, and this one is not only Voodoo Blue, but a manual! Mileage isn’t nuts, either for an FJ at 188,000, nor is the price at $9,550. I’m pretty happy with my all-blue fleet. 

2009 Porsche Cayenne GTS 6-Speed
2003 Honda S2000

Road Test Editor Zac Palmer: James didn’t make this one easy on us this week, but I’m rather smitten with how my two-car garage has turned out. The daily will be a first-gen Porsche Cayenne GTS with its available manual transmission. I need to deal with a rather high-mileage example to get it around the $30,000 range, but considering I’ll be piling on tons more miles as my daily, I’m not too upset about that. Since it’s a super-rare Porsche, the value won’t ever plunge into the sewer either, provided I don’t meet any debilitating repair expenses. The one I chose is a beautiful example with GTS Red paint over beige leather that will always look striking and timeless in the driveway.

For the second car, I had to go with a pure sports car, and I had enough cash left over to get my dream S2000. This here is a Suzuka Blue over blue AP1 (first-gen) S2000. Similar to the Cayenne, this will run me around $30,000, getting me in right around the $61,000 price cap. I went with the AP1 because I crave that 9,000 rpm redline and the raw driving characteristics of that version. There were all sorts of other sports cars that I could’ve picked in the $30,000 range, but the charm of an old Honda and allure of a convertible were simply too much to pass up. Plus, I’m hoping the S2000 balances out whatever massive hole the Cayenne will ultimately leave in my bank account.

2002 Aston Martin DB7 V12 Vantage Volante 
2016 Chevrolet Volt
2012 Ford F-250 Extended Cab 4×4

Senior Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski: We’ll start at the top. This stunning Aston Martin DB7 sold on Bring a Trailer earlier this year with the winning bid of $28,500 earning its buyer a 420-horsepower 5.9-liter V12 engine and the ability to enjoy the sound of the 60-degree twelve-cylinder at any and every opportunity. Score one for internal combustion.

Moving along is the daily driver, a 2016 Chevy Volt with 64,000 miles, an expected selling price of around $15,000 and all the luxuries a modern car has to offer, like cold air conditioning, cruise control and a modern-enough infotainment system. But the best part of it is the Voltec powertrain that offers enough power to feel spunky in traffic and more than 50 miles of electric miles on each nightly charge. Score two for electricity (and its backup engine/generator).

And finally we have a perfectly acceptable heavy duty pickup truck with less than 100,000 miles. This one is a Ford F-250 with the 6.2-liter Boss V8 engine and four-wheel drive. That’ll prove awfully useful for towing, hauling and general exploration of the outdoors. It should also sell in the $15,000-$17,000 ballpark. You could find a higher-mileage Toyota Tundra for a similar price if you wanted, but it wouldn’t be happy towing as much. I’d be happy with either option, really. An older Chevy or GMC with the bigger-is-better 8100 Vortec V8 and GM’s unkillable four-speed automatic would also be dandy with a powertrain that would probably outlast me. Score three for my do-it-all garage for $61,000 or less.

2019 Volvo V90 Cross Country
2018 Chevrolet Bolt EV
Classic Volkswagen Beetle

Senior Editor John Beltz Snyder: We’ve owned a couple old Volvo wagons in the past, and they were excellent. This one is a bit newer, so hopefully would last even longer than our others did. This would be the all-season family car … the one we take on road trips, and likely an almost-daily driver for my wife. There’s currently a CPO example available near me for $33,500.

The Bolt would be the car we use for around-town errands, dropping the kids at school, etc. It would probably be the first one to get grabbed if both cars are already in the driveway and we’re not going far, but could still work if we needed to drive separately to the cottage. I’d keep this one on the spartan side, and I see an example for sale within a half-battery’s worth of driving from me for $18,000 with less than 30k miles on the clock.

Finally, I’m replacing my current Beetle, should it be gone from my driveway, with another Beetle. This is the car I said I’d keep forever, and I already have a bunch of tools, books and spare parts in the garage. I’m not too picky about the model year as long as it runs well and doesn’t have too many problems. With that in mind, and the sheer amount of Beetles still in circulation, the remaining $9,500 in my budget could find me a nice, fun project car to keep my garage smelling the way to which I’ve grown accustomed.

2023 Mazda MX-5 Miata RF
2021 Nissan Leaf Plus

News Editor Joel Stocksdale: If my whole garage is going away, well, I’d first be rather sad and would be tempted to just replace it all. However, coming into around $60,000 would present some interesting opportunities to change things up a little, so I think I’ll go that route. And first off, I would have to get some kind of Miata. I’ve said a few times, at least to friends, that the ND Miata is the best Miata yet. I also adore the looks of the RF, and have often felt that if, heaven forbid, I suddenly lost my NB, I would get an ND instead. And this budget also offers the opportunity to buy a car new, exactly how I want it. So I’m getting a 2023 Miata RF in Soul Red with accessory alloy pedals. The appearance package is stylish, but I’m leaving that off because I know I’ll be doing some modifications in the future, and I might want to go aftermarket anyway with visual tweaks. All in, it would be $37,760.

That leaves around $23,000 for something else, and I’m going with a Nissan Leaf Plus, which is readily available used at this price point. While it has its drawbacks, such as not having CCS DC fast charging and an air-cooled battery pack, it has benefits in an area that matters a lot to me: there’s actually a solid aftermarket for it. Because it seems like almost any car sold in somewhat reasonable volume in Japan, there are plenty of companies in that country offering ways to personalize and upgrade a Leaf. Body kits, wheels and suspension upgrades are ready for the taking. And I want to have an EV for environmental reasons, and I want to make it my own because that’s just how I am, and I’d like to be able to show that you can make an EV cool, even if it’s not a high-end, high-performance one.

Now modifying both of these cars would take me past the budget given, but hey, all we had to do was buy the cars. And nobody said we couldn’t do anything with them later with some other income.