My younger brother has more money than the rest of us—he is an md and married to an md. They both worked for decades. They mostly drive Hondas and Leafs. They did drive a used Lexus for a while but then sent it to their S who needed a car for medical residency. My sibs who have much lower total assets drive newer and more expensive cars—it’s what people value, I guess.
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Keep in mind leasing a luxury car is a popular option.
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When I posted up thread about my family being “ middle of the road” I was putting that in context of the community we were living in. Overall it was a wealthier community than average. My kids were well aware of that as our travel was largely spent visiting family in the rural Midwest communities where H and I were raised.
I admit that I live a far better lifestyle than I dreamed I would when I was growing up and even when I was in my early adulthood. I have been very fortunate in that respect. Hard work and spending habits are part of that equation but so are good luck and privilege.
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And the luxury car lease is sometimes an employee benefit. So leasing a Toyota vs. a Lexus doesn’t mean you get to pocket the difference every month- it just means you drive a Toyota instead of a Lexus.
I have a friend who lives in a high end suburb on a fancy street (they are the proverbial "not yet gentrified home- a basic cape with a car port). She describes the Repo man and the flatbed showing up with great regularity… you can’t miss it because the winding one way street means he’s got to do the “beep beep beep” routine to turn around before he loads the Porsche onto the flatbed.
Not everyone driving a Porsche has paid for a Porsche!
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I have friends that are worth – guessing – in the vicinity of $50 - $100 million, and friends living at the poverty line. Most are somewhere between those extremes.
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Sorry, I can’t resist…
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Percentages of owners leasing increases as buyer income increases, and as make skews more towards luxury. Some luxury EV makes have >90% of buyers leasing. For example, Audi reported 94% of EV sales were leases. Mercedes was 93%. The especially high leasing rates among luxury EVs partially relates to the EV tax credit. When the dealer leases an EV, the purchase is eligible for EV tax credit regardless of income, so dealer can pass the tax credit savings on to consumer, making lease payments substantially lower than loan payments.
However, I agree with the larger point that owning a car does not mean you have to purchase the full price in cash. The vast majority of new car purchases use some kind of financing, rather than pay in cash. Many people also buy used cars rather than new, among all income levels. Any many people purchase cars beyond what traditional finance guidelines suggest they can afford. Of course, many people also purchase more basic/affordable makes. One survey found that Honda, Toyota, and Ford were 3 of the 5 most frequently driven makes among persons of all income levels. There is a lot of variation in car buying choices among different persons, at all income levels.
Your post is literally so much of what I was about to say. Lower/middle/high income living - is all subjective!
We do not talk with friends or neighbors about money other than to say something like “I had an estimate to plant native plants on the hill and it was $10k and that is not how we want to spend $10k”
I’ll be honest this thread has left me with some wide open mouth moments.
My town is definitely diverse in that there are LOTS of low to middle income folks, pla good portion of middle and then suburbs with some higher but not “wealthy” households.
If I had to respond I’d say for instance that in our neighborhood circle we were the ones with a cottage (though kind of a shack lol), we were the ones who with the kids chipping in strongly encouraged our kids to go out of town for college which they all did even though they could have gone in town for probably nothing at our MAC university . But this was not without sacrifices and the cottage WAS our travel.
I will say that I am more likely to judge - if at all - a family not for the toys they have and how it appears they spend their $ on themselves but how they share their money and talents with others less fortunate in our town. If I’m doing any judging.
We are fine but I would never say we can do everything we want or not worry about any $ needs. But we have a good life and know our money or our friends/neighbors $ do not buy happiness. And I truly mean that.
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Maybe they (or a relative) worked at a car dealership and got a deal.
We can always guess… but having worked at multiple car dealerships (decades ago) I am not aware of many great deals to be had for most people.
The priests in our (smaller) town always got the use of a nice car, usually a Caddie. At our grade school, one of the wealthier families owned a car dealership and the nuns got use of a van, and the dealership guy even picked it up, left his personal car at the school, took the van in for servicing and an oil change, and returned it. Quite the deal.
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