[Young at Heart]

I am 53 married ...... old minivan (10 years, 126k miles) that I use as my daily driver. I need the minivan to haul people or stuff about 2 times a month. When I need the van, I really need the van. I would like to buy another car .... rent a carport in a storage facility......I make 140K a year.

I have about 550k in my retirement accounts and about 65k in CDs and savings account.

I’d like to buy a car that is around 20k.

.....It does not make sense to me to buy a 40-50k car just to beat up, so the old van is perfect, but I long for something a bit more fun to drive. Is this dumb?

A few thoughts. First at 55 you should increase your savings for retirement, now that your kids are mostly out of the house.
By that I mean, now is not the time for you getting something fun (or expensive) to drive. Yes, a $20K car is not a mid-life crisis sports car.

You obviously know how to hold onto and extend the life of your everyday ride. Good for you.

If it were me, I would put off buying a new car for a couple more years or until the demand for vehicles collapses (or your van dies) and put the money into you 401 K's. Think of it as waiting for a better time to purchase in a cyclic vehicle price market. Right now with tariff fears almost all car dealers are increasing sticker prices.