NewtoSanDiego,

Based on your previous posts, I suspect you may actually be the one “degrading” the luxury brand image. 🙂

I suspect that there is a relatively high percentage of people in the SoCal area that really can’t afford their car. Perhaps it is their ego, or a sense of entitlement. I suspect that many are ones that lived large during the bubble and are now trying to avoid the repo man. Alot of people are fully bought into the car culture saying “you are what you drive” and wouldn’t be caught dead in a “practical” car.

Bubblesitter

NewtoSanDiego,

Based on your previous posts, I suspect you may actually be the one “degrading” the luxury brand image. 🙂

I suspect that there is a relatively high percentage of people in the SoCal area that really can’t afford their car. Perhaps it is their ego, or a sense of entitlement. I suspect that many are ones that lived large during the bubble and are now trying to avoid the repo man. Alot of people are fully bought into the car culture saying “you are what you drive” and wouldn’t be caught dead in a “practical” car.

Bubblesitter

This is so stupid. There is no correlation between people who drive nice cars/other bling and true wealth.

Most of these “luxury” cars are LEASED or paid via a LOAN, which is just another term for “RENT”.

For some who LEASE it makes sense because it can be written off as a business expense (IE realtors, salesman,etc)…

But not withstanding this former group, a good portion of folks LEASE/or make loan payments on these luxury brands because they can’t otherwise afford the luxury. The other thinking, from what I have heard numerous times at cooler talk is that “well, since I can’t afford the monthly to purchase a home, might as well make the monthly payments for a nice car”….proving once again why Americans are so piss poor…Folks like to think in terms of “affordability” meaning if they can make monthly payments….If I can make payments, then it’s ok to have that thing. Forget about savings. Forget about IF the shit hits the fan and one loses a job/account/contract/etc. Forget about the possibility of unexpected expenses for health bills/lawsuits/etc. As long as I can make payments now and keep my effective savings rate at $0/month, I’m good. By gosh, I deserve a nice car. I deserve it.

(Of course, when the shit hits the fan, it’s “oh, how could this have happened?? I need a government bailout…Go figure..)

Personally, I think it’s, well dumb use of money, LEASE/take out a loan on a ubber expensive “luxury” car for which you couldn’t write off as a business expense, since probably 95% of all cars (luxury included) is a guaranteed depreciating asset, especially high end cars like Mercedes S class, BMW 6/7 series, and Audi A8/S8, which time and time again have proven can loose 45% value within the first 2.5-3 years of ownership, since most of these higher end cars end up being lease returns and/or traded in (since real wealthy people who end up swapping these for latest and greatest) AND also the fact that these “top end” brands end up being money pits in terms of service/reliability after 4 years of ownership.

The exception would be “enthusiast/performance” vehicles for which there is a decent secondary demand for those vehicles and/or people do want to keep those cars because of their novelty (IE Mercedes AMG series, BMW M series, Audi RS/S series), and it is entirely possible to see one of these more for what one has paid for (I.E. I have a friend that buys E90 M3’s drives them for 3-4 months, and ships them back to taiwan for a profit).

But again, that’s just humble opinion. Just like I choose to have no debt for all my cars….

BTW, some folks like to scoff at all those folks that drive a econ box like my neighbor…but I’m pretty confident to say that some of the weathiest people drive the biggest P.O.S.

This is so stupid. There is no correlation between people who drive nice cars/other bling and true wealth.

Most of these “luxury” cars are LEASED or paid via a LOAN, which is just another term for “RENT”.

For some who LEASE it makes sense because it can be written off as a business expense (IE realtors, salesman,etc)…

But not withstanding this former group, a good portion of folks LEASE/or make loan payments on these luxury brands because they can’t otherwise afford the luxury. The other thinking, from what I have heard numerous times at cooler talk is that “well, since I can’t afford the monthly to purchase a home, might as well make the monthly payments for a nice car”….proving once again why Americans are so piss poor…Folks like to think in terms of “affordability” meaning if they can make monthly payments….If I can make payments, then it’s ok to have that thing. Forget about savings. Forget about IF the shit hits the fan and one loses a job/account/contract/etc. Forget about the possibility of unexpected expenses for health bills/lawsuits/etc. As long as I can make payments now and keep my effective savings rate at $0/month, I’m good. By gosh, I deserve a nice car. I deserve it.

(Of course, when the shit hits the fan, it’s “oh, how could this have happened?? I need a government bailout…Go figure..)

Personally, I think it’s, well dumb use of money, LEASE/take out a loan on a ubber expensive “luxury” car for which you couldn’t write off as a business expense, since probably 95% of all cars (luxury included) is a guaranteed depreciating asset, especially high end cars like Mercedes S class, BMW 6/7 series, and Audi A8/S8, which time and time again have proven can loose 45% value within the first 2.5-3 years of ownership, since most of these higher end cars end up being lease returns and/or traded in (since real wealthy people who end up swapping these for latest and greatest) AND also the fact that these “top end” brands end up being money pits in terms of service/reliability after 4 years of ownership.

The exception would be “enthusiast/performance” vehicles for which there is a decent secondary demand for those vehicles and/or people do want to keep those cars because of their novelty (IE Mercedes AMG series, BMW M series, Audi RS/S series), and it is entirely possible to see one of these more for what one has paid for (I.E. I have a friend that buys E90 M3’s drives them for 3-4 months, and ships them back to taiwan for a profit).

But again, that’s just humble opinion. Just like I choose to have no debt for all my cars….

BTW, some folks like to scoff at all those folks that drive a econ box like my neighbor…but I’m pretty confident to say that some of the weathiest people drive the biggest P.O.S.

This is so stupid. There is no correlation between people who drive nice cars/other bling and true wealth.

Most of these “luxury” cars are LEASED or paid via a LOAN, which is just another term for “RENT”.

For some who LEASE it makes sense because it can be written off as a business expense (IE realtors, salesman,etc)…

But not withstanding this former group, a good portion of folks LEASE/or make loan payments on these luxury brands because they can’t otherwise afford the luxury. The other thinking, from what I have heard numerous times at cooler talk is that “well, since I can’t afford the monthly to purchase a home, might as well make the monthly payments for a nice car”….proving once again why Americans are so piss poor…Folks like to think in terms of “affordability” meaning if they can make monthly payments….If I can make payments, then it’s ok to have that thing. Forget about savings. Forget about IF the shit hits the fan and one loses a job/account/contract/etc. Forget about the possibility of unexpected expenses for health bills/lawsuits/etc. As long as I can make payments now and keep my effective savings rate at $0/month, I’m good. By gosh, I deserve a nice car. I deserve it.

(Of course, when the shit hits the fan, it’s “oh, how could this have happened?? I need a government bailout…Go figure..)

Personally, I think it’s, well dumb use of money, LEASE/take out a loan on a ubber expensive “luxury” car for which you couldn’t write off as a business expense, since probably 95% of all cars (luxury included) is a guaranteed depreciating asset, especially high end cars like Mercedes S class, BMW 6/7 series, and Audi A8/S8, which time and time again have proven can loose 45% value within the first 2.5-3 years of ownership, since most of these higher end cars end up being lease returns and/or traded in (since real wealthy people who end up swapping these for latest and greatest) AND also the fact that these “top end” brands end up being money pits in terms of service/reliability after 4 years of ownership.

The exception would be “enthusiast/performance” vehicles for which there is a decent secondary demand for those vehicles and/or people do want to keep those cars because of their novelty (IE Mercedes AMG series, BMW M series, Audi RS/S series), and it is entirely possible to see one of these more for what one has paid for (I.E. I have a friend that buys E90 M3’s drives them for 3-4 months, and ships them back to taiwan for a profit).

But again, that’s just humble opinion. Just like I choose to have no debt for all my cars….

BTW, some folks like to scoff at all those folks that drive a econ box like my neighbor…but I’m pretty confident to say that some of the weathiest people drive the biggest P.O.S.

[quote=Bubblesitter]NewtoSanDiego,

Based on your previous posts, I suspect you may actually be the one “degrading” the luxury brand image. 🙂

I suspect that there is a relatively high percentage of people in the SoCal area that really can’t afford their car. Perhaps it is their ego, or a sense of entitlement. I suspect that many are ones that lived large during the bubble and are now trying to avoid the repo man. Alot of people are fully bought into the car culture saying “you are what you drive” and wouldn’t be caught dead in a “practical” car.

Bubblesitter[/quote]

There’s not need to suspect. Just look at how these luxuries are marketed all the time. Never listed in advertisements as “Car X, great price, $75,000″…It’s always “affordable monthly payments $1800/mon, $3000 due on signing”…

Back in the 90ies this strategy was only for the really higher end trim vehicles. But now, it’s even more prevalent in what I would have considered entry level luxury like BMW 3 series. And the reason for this is the price of the luxury brand has been significantly inflated. It’s just ridiculous that one could price out a BMW 335 at $50k OTD. 3 series were *suppose* to be entry level luxury..So obviously, now they are marketed as “great value leases”.
And meanwhile BMW introduces something like a 1-series meant to be “affordable”….LOL…

[quote=Bubblesitter]NewtoSanDiego,

Based on your previous posts, I suspect you may actually be the one “degrading” the luxury brand image. 🙂

I suspect that there is a relatively high percentage of people in the SoCal area that really can’t afford their car. Perhaps it is their ego, or a sense of entitlement. I suspect that many are ones that lived large during the bubble and are now trying to avoid the repo man. Alot of people are fully bought into the car culture saying “you are what you drive” and wouldn’t be caught dead in a “practical” car.

Bubblesitter[/quote]

There’s not need to suspect. Just look at how these luxuries are marketed all the time. Never listed in advertisements as “Car X, great price, $75,000″…It’s always “affordable monthly payments $1800/mon, $3000 due on signing”…

Back in the 90ies this strategy was only for the really higher end trim vehicles. But now, it’s even more prevalent in what I would have considered entry level luxury like BMW 3 series. And the reason for this is the price of the luxury brand has been significantly inflated. It’s just ridiculous that one could price out a BMW 335 at $50k OTD. 3 series were *suppose* to be entry level luxury..So obviously, now they are marketed as “great value leases”.
And meanwhile BMW introduces something like a 1-series meant to be “affordable”….LOL…