Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tiberias 
One other factor to consider is the major, MAJOR difference in maintenance costs between cars and clothes. It was a surprise for me to discover that expensive clothes, properly maintained, actually don't have very high maintenance costs; mostly just time in brushing, washing, polishing, etc. Occasional costs for dry cleaning and shoe reconstruction, but that's about it.
Contrast that with a car, which is the greatest ongoing liability ever invented by mankind. And maintenance costs and taxes go way up with exotic and imported cars. It's so expensive that, other than in states that have a fixation with cars (read: California), there is a strong argument to be made that a practical, low-cost car is acceptable as long as it's kept clean and functional.
If I were to meet someone very well-dressed and then come to find out that they drive a regular old Honda Accord, albeit clean and maintained, it wouldn't strike me as incongruent, and I suspect I'm not the only one.
I would love to drive a luxury car, but Tiberias is quite right in everything he says. A car is the only purchase of that magnitude that loses half its value the minute you buy it. Education is an investment that continues its payoff forever; houses, other real estate, stocks and other investments, wisely chosen, can appreciate in value handsomely. Cars don't appreciate. In fact nothing
depreciates faster.
And yet it is my impression, based on a scan of ads in the
Wall Street Journal,
Forbes, and so on, that executives and executive wannabes spend a huge amount of time thinking about cars, some time thinking about watches, and precious little time thinking about clothing. We're the anomalies here at this board.
