What New Car Would You Buy With A $50,000 Budget?

Allegedly prices on new cars are coming down, and the average transaction price still has yet to hit $50,000, but the actual ATP is still scarily close to that mark. Too close for comfort, even. And yet, that’s the reality of the world we live in. New cars are basically just for rich people now.

Nissan Finally Turns a Profit

But just because for most of us, spending $50,000 on a new car is about as realistic as buying a $1 million house, that doesn’t mean we can’t play pretend on the internet. There are a lot of options at the $50,000 price point, especially when you start talking trim levels and not just base price. So if you had $50,000 to spend on a new car today, which one would you buy?

Now, to be clear, you don’t have to spend the full amount. Any new vehicle that costs less than $50,000 counts. If you’d be happy with a new Mazda MX-5 Sport, go for the new Miata. It’ll be great as long as you don’t have kids. But maybe you do have kids, and a Toyota Sienna XLE is calling your name. That’s OK, too. It doesn’t have to be sporty just because this is an enthusiast site. We’re all in different life situations, and not everyone can justify driving a convertible.

Admittedly, this is a tough question to answer, especially if you’ve never been able to afford a car that costs more than $10,000. Buying used is so ingrained in me, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to convince myself to buy a new car period. But screw it. I’m single, in my mid-30s, with no kids. If I had $50,000 burning a car-shaped hole in my wallet, I’d probably go with a base, manual Nissan Z and throw a little extra money at some two-tone paint.

You can argue that other cars are better to drive or have better specs, but spending that much money on a car is already an illogical decision, so I might as well go with a car that I illogically like. Although, that’s assuming I could actually get one and that the dealer would sell it to me at MSRP. But come on. This is just a fun hypothetical. Let’s not bring too many of the real world’s problems into this.