Thank you Chefguy, I couldn’t agree more.
Yes.
What the basis for concluding that normal people can fly first class, but all the others indicate an ego problem? Besides the coincidence that it matches your personal feelings. Why can’t everyone just decide what luxury items are worth the cost to them personally, without worrying about people thinking their ego is messed up?
There’s now some ambiguity regarding the traditional hand gesture associated with that. Ellen de Generes demonstrates at 1:28
I have never bought a car brand new, and never considered what others might think of my purchase. I am all about function, but part of that function is making me comfortable. In this area, you are going to spend enormous amounts of time in your car, and you will seldom get to drive the speed limit, much less use that BMW acceleration.
There have been times, coming off a flight after a hard business trip, or walking out of the office after an 18 hour day, when my car looked like my best friend, and I relished the chance to sink into that comfy seat and glide home. When I hurt my back while pregnant with my daughter, there was very little relief available to me. But the driver’s seat of my GMC Envoy adjusted in about 17 directions, and had a heating system which hit the muscles better than any heating pad I could find. For over a year, that was the place I was most comfortable. I’d have given anything to be able to buy one and have it made into a chair for my living room.
In my 20’s I had an Olds Cutlass Sierra Brougham. A couple of times each year I made the drive to my Dad’s house in Michigan. It was a nine hour trip, and I’d arrive feeling as if I’d spent all that time on my sofa. Raring to go from the moment I parked it. A very different feeling than spending nine hours in the later Nissan Sentra. Ugh!
Never have I been at the income level to just go out and buy a new luxury car, but when I wander the used car lot I’m hoping to find:
- a big enough back seat that I can fill it with friends and take off to a museum or other day trip.
- smooth acceleration so that my neck doesn’t hurt after a long commute.
- automatic transmission because I live near Washington DC, and I don’t like walking around with my left leg burning.
- a sunroof, because the sun on my head/face cheers me up enormously, and it helps in cooling down a hot car in the Summer.
- reliability. I’ve never been able to afford a Mercedes, but I’ve known people who drove the same one for decades with just basic scheduled maintenance. That’s an awful lot of stress removed from day to day life!
- a good stereo, because alone in the car is the only place I can crank the tunes these days.
- a strong A/C system, because this IS the South, and I don’t like starting the day with a sweaty hiney print on the back of my pants/skirt.
- all the safety features available, because people around here drive like lunatics!
- enough acceleration to get up to speed and into a traffic lane safely, or out of a bad situation in time.
I can’t help noticing that many posters are speaking rather contemptuously of other people’s purchasing choices. Just know that those people didn’t buy their cars to impress you. They bought their cars on their own budget, with their own list of preferences, challenges, and priorities.
Having driven a luxury car for a few years, some of the features were nice to have.
Nicer suspension
More comfortable seats
climate control (instead of air conditioning)
Other than that, it wasn’t any different than any other car.
I’ve loved big cars since I was a kid. When I say big, I mean BIG; '59 Cadillac big, not the condensed-soup “big” sold now — rear-wheel-drive, land-yacht big. My '92 maroon Buick Roadmonster Limited — with part of the roof in maroon vinyl, I’ll have you know 
— was big, in the original sense of the term.
It had a 350 cubic-inch engine (certainly not the largest in the world) and was great on gas. It would be great on gas now, considering the car’s weight and engine mechanicals. I consistently got 30 mpg (imperial) on the highway or better, and I drove it around Canada, then from coast to coast and circumnavigated the lower 48 states from Washington to Maine in one trip (shorter visits here and there over the years), with nothing but oil changes (and a new tire when I was shot at in Florida).
You don’t know comfort if you’ve never driven thousands of miles while sitting semi-reclined (OK, exaggeration) on a sofa on a cloud, at a constant and automatic perfect 68°F or whatever temperature is your “perfect,” while listening to music with concert-hall-quality acoustics in a sound-proof room travelling 70 or 75 mph, with the tach showing 1,350 or so. A friend said it was like being in a silent movie (the radio was off). It came standard with a four-speed auto transmission, ABS (computer-control brakes) and traction control — remember, 1992.
You’d appreciate the difference after driving from Calgary to Tijuana and back in a Mustang. With no air conditioning.
I’ve owned inexpensive big and inexpensive small, expensive big and expensive small (well, not all that expensive small). Inexpensive big wins over inexpensive small and expensive big wins over expensive small, ego and flashiness be damned.
I try to keep my cars forever, until the engine needs to be torn down or replaced. There were 428,000-and-change kilometres on that thing when the transmission crapped out. I dumped the car, not only because of the transmission but because one cylinder had decided it wanted to go along only for the ride. (I bought it with 42,000-and-change kilometres on the clock).
Comparing luxurious of the past with luxurious of the present can be fun. But window winders and a three-speed standard transmission on, for example, a luxury 1938 Buick Roadmaster Limited should not be laughed at. They were better than those in a Chevy, Plymouth or Ford. If you lived in the ’30s, would you laugh at the luxury of a much better engine, hydraulic brakes, a steel top instead of a square hole papered over with fabric or wood and tar, two vacuum wipers, two (count ’em 2) sun visors, a heater and a radio? With buttons?
Earlier, windows slid opened and closed or disappeared into the door and were lifted with an attached belt to close. Window cranks were a huge advance. I doubt many people laughed.
My present car is not a luxury marque and its a V6, with as much or more usable power than that 350-V8 cubic-inch Buick. It also has more electronic gadgets than were even thought of in 1992. It’s nearly as silent as the Buick, and it is as comfortable in the driver’s seat, but I wish it were bigger because it would ride better than the Buick did. But it almost does.
Thanks to trickle-down, those who look upon luxury-car items with disdain end up with the stuff anyway, if they live long enough driving their Trabants, so why laugh at it now? It’s luxury they could enjoy now, instead of later, unless they’re into hair shirts and Ladas to show off their tiny egos.
Anyway, luxury comes much cheaper when it’s two years old and with only 20,000 miles on the odometer, probably about as much as a near-stripped-in-comparison new car.
Depreciation is your friend.
Why do you cook instead of eating inexpensive nutrition paste? Is it because of your ego?
About 95% of what people spend money on is one kind of luxury or another. Some people like vacations; others, houses; others, cars.
Most people spend thousands of hours in their car, so it’s not a giant shock that some might want to spend that time more comfortably.
To answer the OP, I’m guessing luxury cars are more…comfortable.
Sometimes, the expensive product only pretends to be higher quality. I’m looking at you, Monster Cable and Beats headphones.
First class was worth every penny of the $75 I paid for it on a trip to Orlando to be seated away from the Mickey Mouse crowd. Yeah, its only a three hour trip - but a three hour trip with bigger seats, alcohol, and seated far away from the seat kickers and airplane screamers that populate your average Orlando flight was comparative heaven.
(And I’ve taken my own kids on an Orlando flight. I don’t expect anything else. But a $75 upgrade to not put up with other people’s kids is worth it. This was a business trip, so I didn’t have my own rugrats with me).
**Is There Any Point To Buying A Luxury Car Besides The Prestige? **
I’d like to find out more about the Prestige. Who makes that?
If you frequently transport kids, dogs, and groceries, I dont see any advantage to a luxury car.
Give me a van where I can haul 6 members of my sons hockey team or 5 Boy Scouts plus gear.
An Econoline or an Escalade?
Yes. Designer suits last longer and are a better cut and fit. Bespoke ones are bests of all
Fuck no.
Italian shoes are for a different type of circumstance than casual or informal footware
Only if somebody else (work, parents) is paying for it
What type of Mecedes?
It depends.
My daily driver is a 2008 Nissan Altima, originally purchased used for about $13K. A good friend of mine recently bought a Mercedes E350 new, probably for about $60K. I’ve ridden in (but not driven) the friend’s car.
Is the Merc a better car, and would I like to have one of my own? Undoubtedly. Nicer interior materials, significantly quieter in motion, a remarkably well-damped ride, loads of electronic doodads such as a navigation system. Is it worth five times what I paid for mine? I’ve got to say, no way. My car has (nav system aside) at least 80% of the quality, performance and drivability of the Mercedes, so, just speaking for myself, I’m perfectly happy with it.
I guess what I’m saying is that for me the differences between real luxury and the average bread-and-butter sedan seems to have shrunk considerably in recent years. I don’t begrudge a person who has the financial wherewithal to do so popping for a luxobarge or sports car (hell, my personal dream machine is an Aston Martin), but I remain highly impressed by the quality and reliability of the vehicle I have, at my chosen price point.
80/20 rules apply here, as they do in most things in life.
It gives me an impression of haughtiness and makes me wonder just how badly he or she will try to fleece me.
I notice nobody has mentioned reliability. That makes sense because expensive cars are often not built to last. British cars usually start to fall apart when you drive them off the lot.
Hey! That’s not true at all! When I had my Lotus, um, well, let’s see.
Never mind.