If You Had $10,000 What Used Car Would You Buy?

A defining trait of an automotive enthusiast is scouring the internet looking at cheap used cars in our free time, be it on Craigslist, Bring A Trailer, AutoTrader, or Facebook Marketplace. This task, which normal people see as being about as fun as getting teeth pulled, is something we car nerds do in our spare time simply out of morbid curiosity. I do this often, but lately I've been considering something big. 

I am the proud owner of a 2017 Mini Cooper S four-door hatchback and I love my car with my whole heart, but I'm also not particularly flush with cash and we're approaching a scary step in our relationship. Miss Mini is about to tick over to 95,000 miles and my extended warranty coverage expires in June, which stresses me and my seemingly ever-shrinking bank account out. I'd be lying if I said I haven't tossed around the idea of selling my precious baby and finding an affordable beater that'll be cheap to run and easy to repair on my own. We answer your dilemmas in our "What Car Should You Buy" segments, but we don't often turn the question on our audience. That changes now. If you had $10,000 to spend on buying a used car outright, what would you buy?

If my car is listening, this is strictly a thought experiment. My answer to these questions is usually a 1994-1996 Buick Roadmaster Estate wagon, and I'll be honest I'd have a hard time getting anything else. Everything about it brings me joy, but I found something that might give me even more bang for my buck than an LT1-powered wagon; a 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood. It has the same LT1 V8 and it's built on the same platform as the Roadmaster, but it's even cushier and has a comically colossal chrome strip that spans the entire side of this big body Caddy. 

These bodacious barges measure 225 inches long from bow to stern, or nearly 19 feet of body-on-frame, leather-lined, six-passenger bench seat luxury. It would be quite a drastic departure from my Mini, but I'm a big dude at 6-foot-8 so I think I might learn to enjoy the additional acre-or-two of interior room. Plus it's got a comparatively simple and under stressed LT1 V8 under the hood, so I'd feel more comfortable exercising my mechanic muscles on that than a relatively modern German turbocharged four-cylinder. You can find clean examples with comparable mileage to my Mini for around the $10,000 mark, and you know that engine is barely broken in at 100,000 miles. And before you ask, yes I have a boater's license, so I'll be fine.

What about you? What used car would you spend $10,000 on?