Luxury cars are nice, I like them. My dad has an S-class Mercedes Sedan and it's one of the finest pieces of advanced machinery I have ever seen. Driven it a few times and very few cars can compare to it. If you can afford to buy a luxury car or you are a car guy with adequate disposable income, then yes, go on and buy a fancy car. But the problem is that for the vast majority of people, luxury cars are far beyond their means. The amount of BMW 5 and 7 series i'm seeing on the road is staggering. Everyone is skipping the entry level 3 series and they are going for the more prestigious BMW models. Seems like everyone has an Escalade, Cayenne, BMW X5 or Lexus truck with at least 22 inch rims. I saw the janitor at my nephews school pull up in a late model Yukon Denali truck, complete with navigation, rims, vertical doors and tv screens in the headrests. He's a janitor!!
Sadly, I have a few friends like this. These guys are far from car buffs. They don't know squat about cars, but they do know about status, and they know that having a bimmer, lexus, escalade or a benz increases their status, so they get one. It's kind of sad when you think about it. You get a couple of skanks to do a double take when you are out on the town, so what? Is that so important? Why are they seeking the approval of others so badly?
It's gotten to the point where having a luxury vehicle means absolutely nothing. Everyone has one. Go to any housing projects or ghetto and you will see the finest automobiles from Jaguar, to Benz to BMW to Cadillacs, all there. Maybe that's why they are still poor and have no money. All their meager earnings goes to car payments and premium gas.
My friend is complaining about the monstrosity he calls a car. He has a 2006 Lincoln Navigator. He just couldn't have it stock. He had to put rims on it, drop down lcd in the rear, two lcds in the headrest, playstation 2, pioneer dvd player/touch screen navigation in the front and all the trappings of wealth, or the facade of wealth. He's anything but wealthy. I mean, he's not poor. He does alright, but not $80,000 worth of vehicle alright. So he has all this useless shit in his car, people oogle it for a few seconds, but he has no money and won't for a while. Car payments are $700 a month alone. Then insurance as well. Then gas, oh man is it a gas guzzler. The thing gets maybe 15mpg on the highway if that. He also owes like $14,000 for all the junk he put in there, you see he used credit cards to pay for all those lcds in the headrests etc and interest is building up. He barely has passengers in the car by the way, so nobody even uses the bloody things he has in there. He uses this massive, tricked out SUV for things like going to the post office, the movies, picking up dry cleaning and the gym. A regular car would have suited him just fine, but he wanted to act like a player or something. The thing is just a money hole for him. Hey at least, all the sluts like to look at him when he's driving by....lol. Someone said that women are more attracted to the image of wealth, than true wealth itself. I agree. A wise man would have saved his cash and gotten a Corolla or a Civic. Something reliable, easy to maintain and not a money pit.
It's times like this where I absolutely love my Toyota Corolla. It's not a showstopper, no one is impressed by it, girls don't get wet looking at it, but hey i'm happy with it. It's clean, and it's a 2004 model, so it's not old at all. It's completely paid off, so no payments. It gets 34mpg on the highway!! I think I fill it up maybe once a month, if that. I just don't see the need for a luxury vehicle, considering that I take public transportation to work everyday. A car right now, is just for running errands around town or for going to New Jersey or something. I don't need a $75,000 ride to do that. That Corolla is looking mighty fine to me.