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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rich in DC drive older model cars, walk, bike, uber, and one borrows a car from a friend. It used to be his car. It's almost like he saw the car as a nuisance as he is often away.
They go for convenience, fit, feeling, need, and safety. You'd never know they have money.
They do not drive long distances, but they do fly a lot.
Compare DC to Miami and you know where the notion came from and then maybe from MND.

The school lineup at our kids private school is literally nothing but new luxury sedans and new luxury SUVs. When you see a slightly cheap car you look twice and its a nanny in her personal car.

Private school parents in the DC area are a very self-selective group. Most brand-oriented people in the region. But truly, there are rich people out there driving Toyotas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously not 100% true, but I know examples who fit this trope. We make $2M/year. We drive an old and basic model VW Atlas and a minivan. My neighbors and my best friend are both super extended (money stress has come up multiple times in multiple ways with them). They have huge mortgages and private school but lease new luxury cars. So my sample size of 3 fits!

+1

There are plenty of both sides. We were worth over $10M and I was still driving a 14 yo SUV (it was low end luxury we had bought new). And then I sold it (for 30% of what I originally paid), we didn't need it and drove the teen's Honda for 2 years while they were at college without a car---Then bought a new one once they took car to college. We also didn't have a mortgage during this time, so could easily have afforded a newer/nicer vehicle.

Same with. DH makes low seven figures a year. He drives a 6 year old base model Acura TLX that he bought used and has zero plans to replace. We splurged recently and replaced my 11 year old minivan with a new one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rich people are too money smart to waste money on an overpriced status symbol car. They don't want other people to know how rich they are.

Yeah, you really must not spend much time with people of significant wealth. The Sam Waltons of the world are rare. The billionaires I know personally all have at least one if not two very large private planes, giant houses and drivers. A few have 24/7 security teams beyond just home security.

A lot of old money is running out of money, so yeah, they aren't buying expensive cars.

If you're talking about the people with 4 - 5M in retirement accounts, then I would agree, plenty of these people are not buying expensive SUVs. I think when people who have made their own money hit about 8M, then the cars get nicer.

This is such a baffling conversation. A new BMW costs about 65k. A few years used it goes down to much, much less, under 40k. That is really nothing for anyone wealthy, and I don't mean billionaires, as long as you keep that car for a decent amount of time. I think people here (and I've never heard people talk like this irl!) assign some special value to Hondas, as if they signaled humility and thrift. But they can be just as expensive as luxury cars.

Wife and I are in our mid-50s with a net worth around $20M, and we drive Hondas. The primary reasons are proximity to a local dealership, reliability, and low friction on maintenance. I grew up around the car business, so the novelty of luxury or specialty vehicles wore off early. At this stage, the preference is convenience and staying under the radar rather than signaling. For context, our assets are self-built rather than inherited, which may also influence how we think about discretionary purchases like vehicles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The rich in DC drive older model cars, walk, bike, uber, and one borrows a car from a friend. It used to be his car. It's almost like he saw the car as a nuisance as he is often away.
They go for convenience, fit, feeling, need, and safety. You'd never know they have money.
They do not drive long distances, but they do fly a lot.
Compare DC to Miami and you know where the notion came from and then maybe from MND.

The school lineup at our kids private school is literally nothing but new luxury sedans and new luxury SUVs. When you see a slightly cheap car you look twice and its a nanny in her personal car.

Private school parents in the DC area are a very self-selective group. Most brand-oriented people in the region. But truly, there are rich people out there driving Toyotas.

Spot on

[Anonymous]

It is the difference between old money and new money. Go see the old Top Gear segment with James May reviewing the Subaru Outback. Old money likes a well equipped F-150 or Expedition. New money buys something much more flashy.

[Anonymous]

The notion comes from outdated ideas about old money, which were based on a small subset of people from Massachusetts post-Depression era, who had to economize because they lost money then. Or they lived on trust funds which meant that they had to adhere to essentially a fixed income for life so thet had to be frugal.

The notion also comes from The Millionaire Next Door and the portrait of a modest small business owner (the new geomancy farmer, if you will) and that this was one of the characteristics. Combine that with the other financial writers of the era who said that economizing on everyday items could help a person get ahead: skip the lattes, etc.

I live in CA and rich people drive expensive cars. There is just a lot of emphasis on driving and cars in general but I do think people overextend themselves in order to drive an expensive car because of how it looks.

Rich people today have a lot more money than rich people did 20 years ago.

[Anonymous]

^^yeoman farmer

[Anonymous]

We’re in this camp. 20 year old Honda with a $5 million NW and $600k income. It’s almost embarrassing sometimes because of the number of dents it has as well as the fact that the dashboard has cracks in multiple places. But it runs well and I don’t worry about someone hitting it after parking it. We’ll probably buy a new Toyota soon with cash and run it into the ground too. Cars are depreciating assets. Why would you spend more?

[Anonymous]

I think everyone just spends their money differently. I saw a friend today who drives a $100k suburban that she replaces every 2 years and buys Hermes new. But her one house is relatively modest.

Contrast we own two houses valued at $6M combined, but I drive a relatively old Volvo SUV and the nicest bags I’ll own top out at $5k. Just different priorities!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We’re in this camp. 20 year old Honda with a $5 million NW and $600k income. It’s almost embarrassing sometimes because of the number of dents it has as well as the fact that the dashboard has cracks in multiple places. But it runs well and I don’t worry about someone hitting it after parking it. We’ll probably buy a new Toyota soon with cash and run it into the ground too. Cars are depreciating assets. Why would you spend more?

Same (with a 20 old Corolla that I'll probably replace with another Toyota at some point). We don't have a daily commute and live in the city so it's always getting bumped, and we rent a car for road trips. Can't bring myself to update.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is the difference between old money and new money. Go see the old Top Gear segment with James May reviewing the Subaru Outback. Old money likes a well equipped F-150 or Expedition. New money buys something much more flashy.

The problem is that the new money is about 100X more and there are 500x more of them.

If that’s the case, then you would agree the vast majority of wealthy people drive luxury cars (which is probably true).

[Anonymous]

Wealthy people are into value. That is how we got there.

We drive our cars for about 15 years.

Currently have a Prius Prime and a Subaru Outback.

High net worth.

[Anonymous]

Car allowance through employer and tax deductions fuel a lot of it. MC don’t realize the rich write off every thing. That’s part of the reason why every wealthy SAHM has an LLC fake side business, so hubby can scam the IRS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The notion comes from outdated ideas about old money, which were based on a small subset of people from Massachusetts post-Depression era, who had to economize because they lost money then. Or they lived on trust funds which meant that they had to adhere to essentially a fixed income for life so thet had to be frugal.

The notion also comes from The Millionaire Next Door and the portrait of a modest small business owner (the new geomancy farmer, if you will) and that this was one of the characteristics. Combine that with the other financial writers of the era who said that economizing on everyday items could help a person get ahead: skip the lattes, etc.

I live in CA and rich people drive expensive cars. There is just a lot of emphasis on driving and cars in general but I do think people overextend themselves in order to drive an expensive car because of how it looks.

Rich people today have a lot more money than rich people did 20 years ago.

Point is, anyone can drive a flashy expensive car. It says nothing about wealth, success or intelligence.

[Anonymous]

Go to any BMW dealership and if you stick around for more than an hour, you’ll see a ton of poor people haggling over the repairs over their BMW with slick/worn out tires. As my father used to say, just because you can buy the car doesn’t mean you can’t afford to own it.