QOTD: The $36,000 Question

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

According to several sources, the average price of a new car in America currently hovers around $36,000. This is being consistently dragged upward by folks who just gotta have that Denali or deploy a GL65 AMG to tool around the streets of Beverly Hills.

Using that yardstick, lets play a game. Imagine you have to go out and buy a new car — right now — with today’s average price as your upper limit. But there’s a catch — it’ll be your only car for the next 10 years.

Why 10 years? Pundits argue that’s roughly the average age of cars on the road in America, although you wouldn’t know it from a quick survey of the parking lots at most malls and country clubs. Having said that, our daily whip is aged six years and we just ditched a decade-old truck in favor of a 2018 model. Perhaps the 10-year estimate isn’t that far off the mark.

Anyway, never mind. We’re here to play the game. In this fictional scenario, I’d be trying to find something that would carry three people and life’s detritus without breaking the bank on running costs. Yes, I live in a part of the world where what falls from the sky is not to be believed, but I do not think all-wheel drive is a must. It is my fervent belief that good winter tires trump traction to four corners if those four corners have rubber on them with the same traction as baloney skins.

All hands know I’m a fan of the five-passenger Tahoe Custom, but at around $44,500 it’s 10 grand too expensive. Same thing with any F-150 with a decent engine that’s not equipped like a penalty box. This speaks to the massive profits in trucks, by the way. I’d like to mention the Volvo V60 wagon is juuust outside my self-imposed fictional financial limit. Blast.

Perhaps strangely, I find myself landing at Dodge, where a rear-drive Durango SXT can be had for around $30,000. Equipped with a more than adequate level of kit, a five-passenger Durango would be more than large enough for all of our flotsam and jetsam while not looking like every other crossover on the freeway. The Pentastar V6 and ZF eight-speed are a proven team. It retains external styling cues like foglights and is available in that annoying shade of red I like.

Still, an SUV? Jeez. At least it’s rear-drive. Maybe Steph was on to something.

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • THX1136 THX1136 on Jun 13, 2018

    Whatever Charger that fits the price point would work for me.

  • Jagboi Jagboi on Jun 14, 2018

    If I can take advantage of incentives and/or find one hanging around on a dealer lot, I could just squeeze in a Jaguar XE AWD with the 2.0 diesel. I rented one in the UK a few years ago and averaged almost 60 mpg, I figure that should insulate against future fuel cost increases.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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