I grew up not rich, but we always had spotless and properly maintained cars. It was akin to having a clean house. And, if something was broken or damaged, it was immediately fixed. Don't think wealth is an issue.

Anonymous wrote:
My middle class friend is very particular about everything, and it would pain her to drive a car with a scratch. My similarly-minded father - same thing. None of them have ever been wealthy!

And me? I drive my battered 17 year old car everywhere and I don't feel bad about it I have significant assets, but I simply don't care about signs of wear in my house or my vehicles. I'd rather not deal with the hassle of cleaning and repair, unless it's a question of safety, which obviously trumps my lazy attitude. The car is fit to drive, but that's it. It's very ugly.

I do like nice clothes, though. To each his own, I suppose.

This is me. My car is over ten years old, scratched up to hell and kind of embarrassing to drive...kids don't like being seen it either. I had nice cars when I was young and had less money. Maybe my mistakes with money when I was young, taught me some lessons? I could afford a much nicer car, but really don't care that much about it. I also don't care abut clothes, but my mountain bike is probably worth more than my car.

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure she was raised affluent? IMO, the people who are the most concerned about things like this are the ones who weren't raised wealthy and have something to "prove."

Don't have time to read whole thread, but I find the above so true. At my office some of the nicest and cleanest cars are driven by security personnel and the cleaning crew. IMHO, they drive way more car than one would expect for their salary. Meanwhile, lots of executives driving beat up Accords and Camrys.

My middle class friend is very particular about everything, and it would pain her to drive a car with a scratch. My similarly-minded father - same thing. None of them have ever been wealthy!

And me? I drive my battered 17 year old car everywhere and I don't feel bad about it I have significant assets, but I simply don't care about signs of wear in my house or my vehicles. I'd rather not deal with the hassle of cleaning and repair, unless it's a question of safety, which obviously trumps my lazy attitude. The car is fit to drive, but that's it. It's very ugly.

I do like nice clothes, though. To each his own, I suppose.

Anonymous wrote:Keeping one of your most valuable assets neat and clean seems pretty normal and logical.

Unless it’s a rare vintage car, it isn’t a valuable asset. It’s losing value every day.

Hang out with some old money horse and hounds types. Their cars are filthy, filled with three muddy jack Russell terriers and at least one half-filled bottle of vodka rolling around in the back seat.

It has nothing to do with new money vs. old money. I'm surprised by some comments on this thread. Since has being clean and neat become a bad thing?
If you think that it's ok to drive around in a dirty and filthy car, you are probably ok with wearing dirty clothes. Your house is also probably dirty. You are probably
comfortable in a dirty environment. Everyone isn't like you. Many people value cleanliness.

Not fixing car damage, even if it's minor, is something you do when you don't have insurance and/or are too poor to afford it. It also looks irresponsible and sloppy/trashy.

who cares, I can't believe the stupid sh!x people obsess over

Anonymous wrote:When I used to watch reality tv, I noticed the Kardashians and all the Housewives of ____ shows always drove meticulously clean luxury cars and SUVs.

I bet many of those cars don't even belong to them and are rented/loaned for production. They are meticulously clean because they were meticulously cleaned by the company that supplied them for the shoot, and the company would like their product to be displayed in its best light in their paid advertisement.

When I used to watch reality tv, I noticed the Kardashians and all the Housewives of ____ shows always drove meticulously clean luxury cars and SUVs.

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure she was raised affluent? IMO, the people who are the most concerned about things like this are the ones who weren't raised wealthy and have something to "prove."

+100

Lol our rich friends must be horrified when we drive up, if true.

I personally haven't noticed it. Some of my friends care about cars and will talk about them, but I have zero interest and rarely engage. I don't care how the care looks, though we do keep it clean inside because who wants to drive a messy/dirty car. I vacuum it out and wipe down all surfaces every other month or so, and we rarely have food in the car except on long care trips. Don't pay to get it detailed though (seems like a waste of money).

But we live in the city and often street park and hour car is always kind of scuffed up from that. I once had a friend suggest we get a "bumper bully" to protect it, but the thing is that we are going to drive it until it literally doesn't run anymore and then buy a new car -- even with a bumper protector, we don't expect our car to have value by the time we trade it in. We usually get like 2k and are fine with that. We also generally buy a car that is a few years old and I like it when there are a few scratches or imperfections because these cars are easier to find and generally priced cheaper, and as long as they are just ordinary wear and tear and not from a crash, they don't impact the functionality on the car at all.

Trying to keep a car in perfect condition seems pointless, and probably leads these people to buy new cars constantly, which is a waste of money. How are they rich again?

Anonymous wrote:1. Driving a spotless, freshly-detailed car.
2. Refusing to drive a car with any physical damage, no matter how minor.

Example. We had friends over last night and the husband was teasing his wife for refusing to drive her SUV until he got it fixed because it had a huge scratch on it. You can tell she was raised in an affluent setting, very hoity-toity. It's not just her though, I remember hearing similar from my well-to-do grandmother about "not being caught dead" in a dirty or damaged car. And in the lineup at my children's private school, the cars are generally sparkling clean with glossy tires, and have no damage.

Where does this come from? Like they have a perception that dirty and/or dinged up cars are seen as low class?

Why would you have a damaged car? Accidents, bad driving, etc.

I don't associate having a clean car free of damages with Richness.

A dirty car is just gross. Period. If you have a dirty car, you probably have a dirty home.

I think you need to Pick better friends!

I’m not rich, my car isn’t fancy and my kids don’t play soccer. But I wouldn’t drive around with a big scrape or dent in my car. Minor door dings, sure.