AutoGuide Dream Car Garages: $500,000 Edition

Which cars would you buy if you were handed $500,000?

That is the question that was posed to all of us here at AutoGuide.com, and it has been a tricky one to answer. There is no limit to the number of cars we can park in our dream garages, as long as the sum of those vehicles does’t topple the $500,000 mark. So, do you take one Lamborghini Aventador or about 33 Mitsubishi Mirages?

Read on to see exactly which cars our editors would take home if they were granted half-a-million bucks and make sure to let us know what you would take home in the comments section below.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from all of us here at AutoGuide.com!

When you have to pretend you have $500,000 to spend on cars, you’d be surprised how hard it is to come up with the cars you’d want. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a bit since we all definitely have an idea of our dream cars, but given the budget of $500,000, you can’t reach for the stars, which means exotics like the Porsche 918 Spyder, LaFerrari and McLaren P1 are out of the question. It then becomes do you want quantity over quality? Sure one could just shove a Lexus LFA onto the list, but that’s 75 percent of the budget right there. So I decided to maximize my spending while plucking away some of the best each region of the world has to offer.

Audi R8 Spyder V10 – $167,350. At the top of the list is the Audi R8 Spyder V10 equipped with a manual transmission of course, which fulfills having a convertible in the garage. While there’s a fair amount of people that would disagree, I stand by the belief that the R8 is one of the best cars Germany has to offer and is one of the most capable daily drivers when it comes to the world of exotics. Plus it’s just absolutely gorgeous to stare at while its 5.2-liter V10 with 525 hp and 391 lb-ft of torque makes it a complete blast to drive. Priced at $167,350 including destination, the R8 V10 Spyder is the most expensive vehicle on my list.

As you might expect, my dream car garage has to start with a pickup truck… or two.

2015 GMC Sierra Denali – $68,000. A 2015 GMC Sierra Denali 3500 dually would suit my needs quite nicely. I need something that can tow my toys to and from the race track all while coddling me with a comfortable cabin, and there is no better beast on the road that handles that duty quite like the big GMC. Of course, under the hood would be a 6.6-liter Duramax diesel which sends 765 lb-ft of torque through the exceptional Allison six-speed transmission. That will set me back about $68,000.

I’d take that four grand and pick up a cheap beater, maybe an old Volvo station wagon or Pontiac Sunfire, and take it straight to the local fall fair to compete in the demolition derby.

“Half a million bucks” I thought when Luke first explained the idea of this story to me. My mind quickly drifted, the sum rattling around inside my mostly vacant skull. “With that much cash I’d be a pretty poor rich person,” my inner monologue continued, though of course that would make me exponentially wealthier than I’m ever likely to be in real life, unless of course dryer lint becomes a precious commodity.

But more importantly than that six-figure sum, how would I spend this imaginary windfall? I’ve been tasked with assembling a dream garage and anything is fair game. What should I include? What’s worthy of making the cut? These are tough decisions but I think I’ve got it covered.

Mid-1930s Cadillac V16 ≈ $100,000. Unlike most contemporary enthusiasts my automotive proclivities tend toward the old and stately; new vehicles just don’t have as much soul as vintage iron. Accordingly a mid-‘30s Cadillac V16 deserves a parking space in my fictitious dream garage. The one pictured above happens to be a 1936 model and would suit me just fine. The mystique, exclusivity and audacious beauty of these rare automobiles makes them undeniably appealing. This model comes from a time when the wreath-and-crest truly was the standard of the world; it’s the Cadillac of Cadillacs and something the brand should strive to emulate today.

Perusing vintage-car sites on the Interwebz reveals that a nice example of a 1936-ish Cadillac V16 can be had for around 100 grand. That’s 20 percent of my total budget but well worth it.

Normally I’m not a fan of convertibles; they turn my stomach like doing shots of liquid smoke. But the ‘63 Conti is one of the ONLY vehicles I’d ever want with a folding roof. They look so long and so low, they’re unlike anything else out there, which is why I’d go with a drop-top in this instance. Sure, President Kennedy probably didn’t enjoy his time in one of these road-ruling Lincolns but I love ‘em. Now after doing a little digging it appears that pristine examples of these cars seem to go for around $50,000, which is good news because it means this car is not a budget-buster … in this scenario at least.

Propelling this sultry machine is a mid-mounted 5.4-liter supercharged V8 that puts out 550 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of torque. All that juice is routed to the aft tires through a six-speed manual transmission. What’s not to love? Of this car’s available color schemes I’d have no choice but to go with the orange and blue Gulf Oil livery for obvious reasons; it’s the best.

There are far too many cars out there to choose from, even when limiting my options to just $500,000. I believe that life is just too short to drive boring cars, so let’s scratch off the drab sub-compacts and family cars and get right to it. I also wish I could have bought some cars for my friends – I’m typically of the mindset that things (including cars) are more fun with the people you love, but since this post is about my dream cars and not what I’d do with half a million dollars, I’ll keep this list pretty personal.

I’ll start with my toys: a 2015 Porsche Cayman GTS with a few options and packages. Why the Cayman and not a 911? I love the uncompromising design of the smaller Porsche. It’s small and cozy with a tight wheelbase. I’d also love the right-behind-my-head placement of that 3.4-liter flat-six engine. I wouldn’t even need a stereo because the Cayman screaming to 7,400 RPM would be an intoxicating soundtrack to live with every single day. But let’s get to the point here. The Cayman GTS isn’t exactly about speed, it’s about fun. It makes 340 HP and weighs less than 3,000 lbs, making it agile, engaging and balanced. Just the perfect car I’d want to drive nearly every day, and you can pick it up for about $78,000 although I would definitely check some of the options boxes so mine would run about $84,930.

Come to think of it, I really shouldn’t be writing about cars at all if this is supposed to be a $500,000 “dream car garage.”

Literally speaking, my dream car garage would probably be a massive warehouse with enough square footage for a go-kart course, a bowling alley and a snooker table, all a safe distance from whatever I happened to be parking in there at the time.

I would want a pickup truck for tailgating – crew cab half-ton and you can fill in the rest, – a late 70’s Trans Am with the Pontiac 400 motor would be cool to have because I’m classy like that and I would probably also want a Grand Sport C6 Corvette. That would be enough. I’m not sure Chevrolet will ever build a car that I enjoy looking at more than the C6. Ed Welburn’s team might do it.

But that isn’t the point and I’m being facetious. If I had that kind of cash to blow on cars today or lose tomorrow, I would almost definitely lose the money because as anyone who works at AutoGuide.com knows, I’m painfully indecisive about car purchases.

That said, I would be elated to own any of the following cars and many others.

2015 Camaro Z/28 – $75,000. Earlier this year I had the chance to spend some time lapping in the new Camaro Z/28 and if I had the money, I would have already bought one. I doubt the LS7 will see very much action – if any – in the future, and that makes the Z/28 that much more special in my mind. I’m sure that the incoming Alpha-based Camaros will have scores of advantages over the outgoing Zeta-based Camaros, but this will live as a truly special car in my heart.

They convert Holden Utes to be street legal in the U.S. and they have a green Maloo with a 6.2-liter V8 that should be good for somewhere in the ballpark of 425 hp with practically no weight over the rear wheels. I drove a tamer version of the Holden Ute in South Australia last year and I’ve been dreaming of finding a way to do it again ever since.

This is the most expensive car on my list and far more than I could handle with my current skill as a driver. But who cares? It’s a supercharged C6 and as I wrote earlier, these are basically the pinnacle of sports car aesthetics in my mind. It isn’t as powerful as the new Z06, but that isn’t the point.

If you’ve been keeping track – I’m not sure why you would – that leaves about $5,500 to spare. Ignoring the fact that two replacement tires for the Z/28 would chew through that spare change, I would probably want to spend the remainder on a Toyota MR2 Spyder. It ought to be especially dependable, it’s certain to be entertaining and almost certain to have lived free of the “Fast and Furious” crowd that loves to tinker with the turbocharged MKII models oh so much. At roughly five grand, it would probably have an awful lot of miles clocked, but if I had to buy a high mileage sports car this would probably be it.

I have a broad taste in cars that usually borders more on the obscure. Rather than fill this fantasy list with a ton of bizarre, one-off cars that I would never find to purchase or be able to acquire parts for, I decided to keep it a little more mainstream. Every vehicle listed below was available for purchase online at the time of writing this article and yes, I want them all very badly.

2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 w/ Z07 Package – $89,985 – The car I’m anticipating more than other right now is the 2015 Corvette Z06. What could most likely be the ultimate Corvette, this car ticks off all the right check boxes for me. Of course it would need to be equipped with the Z07 package because, why settle for anything but the best? Although a Porsche 911 Turbo S would work just as well as a weekend ride/part time track weapon for me, the Corvette leaves a lot more left over money for other toys.