Where does this notion come from that wealthy people don't drive nice cars?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People value different things. The last thing I want is to be driving around in a car broadcasting my money to randos. Maybe that will change as I get older but it makes me uncomfortable in my 30s. If anything I feel like it makes you a target for scammers and weirdos when running errands. Also grew up in CT with the Petit murder that all started with those psychopaths seeing the mom and daughter in the nice Mercedes and fur so that probably conditioned me towards being low key too.

I think of them often too. We also just prefer to hide our wealth so we don’t get hit up for random donations, get judged for not giving more to athletic boosters, PTA, college, etc. My money, my business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is interested in cars, for many people cars are a way to get from point a to point b.

Even multi-millionaires who don’t care about cars still drive nice new ones. A boring but nice crossover like a 2026 Lexus RX or Mercedes GLE - or maybe an E-Class wagon. Nobody rich is driving some decade old Honda or Chevy Malibu. Rich teenagers don’t even drive decade old economy cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s an old money, New England, Yankee thing, to this day.

Partly it’s the old money attitude that it’s gauche to show off wealth - but it’s also just practicality. You need 4 wheel or AWD. No use getting a sporty little car, you’ll never get out of your driveway in the winter.

LOL, yeah, all those old money Newporters driving Civics. This thread gets better and better.

No one with money thinks driving an E-Class is “gauche”.

+1. Low born strivers get on here and act like they’re teaching us a thing or two about how to be stealth wealth and classy. To anyone under age 60 born into an UMC or UC family, a $75,000 Land Rover, BMW, Mercedes or Audi has been a totally down the middle normal car since birth. Your parents, friends’ parents, and extended family all drove similar your entire life. It’s not noteworthy, let alone attention-seeking or gauche.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you even read the millionaire next door? Most drive honda's. The poorest people I know drive "nicer" cars, the multimillionaires myself included drive honda's, toyota's, nissan's. Poorer people tend to fake the funk and think that they're fooling people.

Oy vey. Nothing screams midwit prole Dave Ramsay listener like citing a conman’s book.

Midwit prole. Loving the parochial snobbishness. Dcurbanmom, where the moms and dads cosplay David Brooks in his desperate Bobos in Paradise years. FYI, statistically speaking most of the millionaires in this country over 50 drive F150s, new money tech millionaires drive hondas, new money tech billionaires have someone else drive them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is interested in cars, for many people cars are a way to get from point a to point b.

Even multi-millionaires who don’t care about cars still drive nice new ones. A boring but nice crossover like a 2026 Lexus RX or Mercedes GLE - or maybe an E-Class wagon. Nobody rich is driving some decade old Honda or Chevy Malibu. Rich teenagers don’t even drive decade old economy cars.

We were worth $40M+ and I was driving a 6yo Honda for another 2 years.

[Anonymous]

I live in a rich enclave in the south (~$3M average home value) and expensive cars are the norm. Cars in the range of $200k+ for the adults and $100k+ for the kids aren’t the average but they are common. No one is driving around in a beater Honda. My husband is in finance and all the guys he works with (old and new money alike) constantly talk about cars and buy new cars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The humble millionaire next door seems like nonsense to me; rich people are not driving 25 year old Volvo station wagons. And everyone with a nice new luxury car obviously isn't broke and overextended. I'm currently in a swank town and every car is a new Range Rover, Porsche crossover, Tesla, or Audi-BMW-Mercedes (they all look alike). The worst car I see are new Chevrolet Tahoes, which are like 80 grand. If that humble old money thing ever existed, it certainly doesn't anymore.

It’s quite simple really, and all whether your wealth is born from new money or old money.

New Money = overly luxurious and flashy
Old Money = reserved and practical

After all, if you spent much of your life in poverty and suddenly acquired wealth through new money (think recent Stanford CS grad working in AI that emigrated from India), wouldn’t you want to spoil yourself with a Tesla? You worked hard for it after all and probably don’t mind if know.

Similarly, if you grew up with extreme wealth and drove around in Mercedes and Range Rovers your entire life (think trust fund babies living in NW DC), wouldn’t you try to downplay some of your inherited wealth by driving a more modest car? It’s embarrassing after all to be a person whose wealth was all given to them and not earned.

[Anonymous]

The generalizations on this thread are hilarious.

New money.
2 Toyotas — one is 18 years old, the other 25 - both run like new, little to no maintenance. Not dinged up
Love these cars and all new cars are less comfortable comparatively.

Don’t feel any need to impress anyone. And if a flashy car is what impresses you, you’re not my type anyway. Btw, there are many others like me. Iykyk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I only see old people in old cars. They know they will die soon and don't see the point in getting a new one. Same for upgrading or updating their house. They just do nothing the couple decades and their house becomes a time capsule.

lol yes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a rich enclave in the south (~$3M average home value) and expensive cars are the norm. Cars in the range of $200k+ for the adults and $100k+ for the kids aren’t the average but they are common. No one is driving around in a beater Honda. My husband is in finance and all the guys he works with (old and new money alike) constantly talk about cars and buy new cars.

Oh yeah, well, the South has a big car culture. You have to drive a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in a rich enclave in the south (~$3M average home value) and expensive cars are the norm. Cars in the range of $200k+ for the adults and $100k+ for the kids aren’t the average but they are common. No one is driving around in a beater Honda. My husband is in finance and all the guys he works with (old and new money alike) constantly talk about cars and buy new cars.

I don’t even know what a $200k car is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is interested in cars, for many people cars are a way to get from point a to point b.

Even multi-millionaires who don’t care about cars still drive nice new ones. A boring but nice crossover like a 2026 Lexus RX or Mercedes GLE - or maybe an E-Class wagon. Nobody rich is driving some decade old Honda or Chevy Malibu. Rich teenagers don’t even drive decade old economy cars.

We were worth $40M+ and I was driving a 6yo Honda for another 2 years.

My kids drives a 2015 Subaru and a 2018 Kia. They have trust funds from their grandparents and we are worth north of 10M

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is interested in cars, for many people cars are a way to get from point a to point b.

Even multi-millionaires who don’t care about cars still drive nice new ones. A boring but nice crossover like a 2026 Lexus RX or Mercedes GLE - or maybe an E-Class wagon. Nobody rich is driving some decade old Honda or Chevy Malibu. Rich teenagers don’t even drive decade old economy cars.

We were worth $40M+ and I was driving a 6yo Honda for another 2 years.

My kids drives a 2015 Subaru and a 2018 Kia. They have trust funds from their grandparents and we are worth north of 10M

No matter what we say, the flashy money people will never understand. We have nothing to prove. They are also making it out like it’s a 15 year old civic, a new Mercedes or nothing. I drive a newer Honda Odyssey with all the available features. It’s quite comfortable and does everything I need it to while flying under the radar. It replaced another older minivan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is interested in cars, for many people cars are a way to get from point a to point b.

Even multi-millionaires who don’t care about cars still drive nice new ones. A boring but nice crossover like a 2026 Lexus RX or Mercedes GLE - or maybe an E-Class wagon. Nobody rich is driving some decade old Honda or Chevy Malibu. Rich teenagers don’t even drive decade old economy cars.

We were worth $40M+ and I was driving a 6yo Honda for another 2 years.

My kids drives a 2015 Subaru and a 2018 Kia. They have trust funds from their grandparents and we are worth north of 10M

No matter what we say, the flashy money people will never understand. We have nothing to prove. They are also making it out like it’s a 15 year old civic, a new Mercedes or nothing. I drive a newer Honda Odyssey with all the available features. It’s quite comfortable and does everything I need it to while flying under the radar. It replaced another older minivan.

Just different personality types. Neither is bad or good, worse or better.
Maybe in the Meyer's Briggs world, the S types will like flashier material goods and the N types don't even notice the material goods.

Bottom line is that the car someone drives is not directly proportional to their income or their wealth, but simply more of an indication of their personality type.

And if you're into flashy cars, do know there is a significant portion of the population who won't even notice let alone care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not everyone is interested in cars, for many people cars are a way to get from point a to point b.

Even multi-millionaires who don’t care about cars still drive nice new ones. A boring but nice crossover like a 2026 Lexus RX or Mercedes GLE - or maybe an E-Class wagon. Nobody rich is driving some decade old Honda or Chevy Malibu. Rich teenagers don’t even drive decade old economy cars.

We were worth $40M+ and I was driving a 6yo Honda for another 2 years.

My kids drives a 2015 Subaru and a 2018 Kia. They have trust funds from their grandparents and we are worth north of 10M

No matter what we say, the flashy money people will never understand. We have nothing to prove. They are also making it out like it’s a 15 year old civic, a new Mercedes or nothing. I drive a newer Honda Odyssey with all the available features. It’s quite comfortable and does everything I need it to while flying under the radar. It replaced another older minivan.

Just different personality types. Neither is bad or good, worse or better.
Maybe in the Meyer's Briggs world, the S types will like flashier material goods and the N types don't even notice the material goods.

Bottom line is that the car someone drives is not directly proportional to their income or their wealth, but simply more of an indication of their personality type.

And if you're into flashy cars, do know there is a significant portion of the population who won't even notice let alone care.

I've lived in Miami and also know a lot of those super cars are rented or people are in debt up to their eyeballs on them.