What New Cars Would You Spend $250,000 On?

Automotive journalists love to play the hypothetical car-buying game, and Jalopnik’s latest thought experiment is a doozy: if you had $250,000 to spend exclusively on brand-new cars—no used, no dealer auctions, no loopholes—what would you drive home? The catch? You must walk into a dealership and order custom builds, or split the budget across multiple new rides.

The exercise isn’t just about fantasy; it’s about pushing the limits of what’s possible within a quarter-million-dollar budget in today’s new-car market. The conversation started internally at Jalopnik when one editor tested the waters with a Mercedes-AMG G63 press car priced just shy of $250,000—a figure some colleagues called outrageous. But the author doubled down on the G-Wagon, not with the fire-breathing G63, but with the fully electric G580.

A quick build on Mercedes’ configurator locked in a Desert Silver G580 at $208,990, loaded to the gills. With $41,010 left on the table, the editor cheekily penciled in a Hyundai Elantra N to round out the haul. The real question: what would you spec if the cash were in your hands?

The article invites readers to share their own $250,000 dream garages—bonus points for screenshots of online configurators with live pricing. Whether it’s a single halo car or a carefully curated fleet, the only rule is that every penny must go toward brand-new vehicles, ordered fresh from the dealer. No exceptions.