rai

I see your point. Here in the US we have 40-year home loans, 6-year car loans, I get 3-4 credit card offers a week.

The culture does encourage people to "live it up". People are spending thousands of dollars for "rims" to pimp their ride. It's unnecessary. But some people want to reward themselves or flash some cash to show how successful they are.

We could all probably get by with an echo. Heck we don't need SUVs to tow boats and such b/c boats are un-necessary.

We could all probably get by with a fraction of what we have. However people like to show off or have something a little better than the next guy.

Also some people can afford a lot more than the next guy. Maybe they have a ton of money. Do you expect a rich person to drive an echo just b/c he doesn't need anything better?

Like a rich guy will buy a Rolls Royce to ride in style. So the upper-middle class guy may buy a 300C.

shaundesjardins

Yes.
Unfortunately some people feel the need to show everyone how "successful" they are by also showing us how stupid they are. I personally don't understand this desire to show off how much money you make just because you can. My wife and I make a pretty good living (I'm a mortgage broker, she's a nurse) yet we drive an economy car and live in a fairly modest townhouse) It might make me feel good to own a kick ass car and house for a few weeks but after that, it would just wear off. I feel many people buy these kind of things to fill a void in their lives and then realize it doesn't do the job and they buy another car and another car and another....
Makes me laugh and it makes me sad all at the same time.
I'm genuinely happy with most things I buy because it's genuinely what I need and not what's cool or what will impress people I don't even know.

rai

all good points. But here at "CAR TALK" it'd be pretty dull if we just talked about how many MPGs we get or how we could live with the same old car.

ElTianti

Unfortunately some people need to indulge self-congratulation and proudly display their moral vanity by looking down their noses

rai

If it weren't for excess, we'd never have cars like the SLR, Enzo, GT2, etc..

Heck we'd not even have S2000s or such.

shaundesjardins

In many way those cars are not excessive. They only have 2 seats, hardly a trunk to speak of, the S2000 is a small car etc.

I'm not against excess in moderation but I don't see the need for huge, over the top in every way vehicles as daily drivers (H2, Escalade, Suburbans even Magnums)

Super cars are not used as daily drivers, they are toys for the weekend so in my mind can't necessarily be compared to the likes of SUVs.

I love the S2000 (that's why I come to this site) and I dont feel superior in any way to anyone. I don't see how someone could have thought that but.....
I'm also not this enviro-freak, I'm just a person that likes to live fairly modest yet I'm very happy with what I have.
When I hear about people buying something like an RSX as a "beater" car itjust makes me shrug my shoulders. A lot of showoffs on here I guess.

glagola1

All I know is that I'd feel like a fruit loop filling up a MAGNUM at gas station. At first I was like, "holy shit, dodge finally made a station wagon that wasn't all tall and truck like." Meaning, suv's are simply station wagons that have a propensity for rolling over and killing people in other cars they hit and I thought dodge recognized that and tried to make an suv that wore it's true colors. The silly part is that they tried to make it manly too. I love the commercial where two models roll up on harleys with their leather jackets and get all excited about the station wagon that's parked in the suburban driveway. Ha ha ha... oh geez. Put a hemi in it and all of a sudden men will love it. Oh well, I guess a little over half of the men will love it based on the fact that Bush was re-elected.

dcak

[QUOTE=ElTianti,Jan 3 2005, 08:37 AM]
Unfortunately some people need to indulge self-congratulation and proudly display their moral vanity by looking down their noses

dcak

Moderate to some is excess to others. I think many people around the world would consider the S2000 an excess. In fact, many millions would think anyone with a "weekend car" might be living in excess.

Ballistic

When you have children, then you'll understand. Children, especially small ones, come with a lot of 'Stuff'