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Jerks?, no.
Poor financial planners wasting $$$ on a depreciating asset?, most definitely.
All vehicles create negative cash flow, unless you rent them out.
Of all the expensive, exotic and sports car owning folks I know, only about 10% could be classified as "jerks." Most are really nice people.
All have egos, by definition. Some call that "jerk(y)".
Starting as a lad, I encouraged my dad to pickup a late 1970s BMW 530, 535 sort of four door sedans for the family. This was early 1980s, before JPN sedans were widespread. I think Lexus GS and LS 300 and 400, early 1990s, started the trend and was a horrible surprise to BMW and American car makers...never mind. Anyway, old dad would have none of it, buying and driving into the ground garbage Chrysler LeBarons and similar. That was a sad, sad car but probably good for me to learn to drive in, I must say.
My first real car...not a gimme or buy for $300...was a BMW 325ic, in red early 1995. Not a car for the meek, just a yuppie-mobile. Loved that car, it's one of my favorites in there with my Tacoma. Put 75K miles, total of 175K, with not too many problems: older BMWs held up well. Not so past twenty years. jerk-y car? Oh definitely.
The progression from there was also not for the meek: BMW 540i, souped-up Tacoma X-Runner, Porsche 911 Turbo, 911 GTS, and now my ruby red Shelby GT350R. Not a quiet one in the bunch.
I'm not known to be a swell guy. Very few are, who are successful, end of the day.
Money is a magnifier. If you are already a jerk, money makes you a bigger jerk. If you are a nice person, money maker you even nicer.
To a point, this works for booze also.
I hit a pot hole and blew out a tire. Some guys in an old broken down pick up truck threw a beer bottle at me when I was on the side of the road looking at the damage. A guy in a new BMW stopped and asked If I needed any help.
I try not to judge people. Some days are better than others.
Of all the expensive, exotic and sports car owning folks I know, only about 10% could be classified as "jerks." Most are really nice people.
Exactly. I'm in a couple of car clubs here in Southern Nevada and most of the members are respectful of other people, regardless of the situation.
Sounds to me like the person that did this research probably can't afford anything other than $500 beater and just decided to disrespect everyone that has a nice ride.
Utterly amazing that anybody would waste time or money on researching that. There are far more pressing issues to humanity, that the money could be spent on......
Our tax dollars at work. I think many of us would find that 90% of taxpayer-funded university "research projects" are miscellaneous nothingburgers that are of interest (maybe) to the "scientists" but if there were proper oversight of our public funds, would see the round file rather than something like this.
Now someone will have to do a supporting or refuting study as a follow-up. I have a relative who rode the government-grant gravy train for years and did quite nicely.
Jerks?, no.
Poor financial planners wasting $$$ on a depreciating asset?, most definitely.
All vehicles create negative cash flow, unless you rent them out.
So do most hobbies, vacations, nice dinners, etc. What's the ROI on a nice dinner out? Poop, that's what.
For a lot of these guys with really expensive cars, they are spending very little of their income on the cars. It's no different to them than buying a $1000 beater is to you or I. There's very little financial repercussion to it.
As an example, back in the '90s, a good friend of mine from my sports car club was in the local Ferrari dealer getting an extra set of wheels for his Ferrari F40 to mount race tires on for track days. It was a sunny day and he realized he wanted a convertible, so he laid down cash for a Ferrari F355 convertible to go home in. To him it was no different than it would be for me to buy a used Miata to add to the fleet.
And for many of us, our "nice" cars (and by nice I mean used luxury and sports cars) tend to lose us less money than average cars would. I just this month sold my BMW convertible that I had for 3 years for the same money as I paid for it ($8500). Not a bad ROI for al the fun I had with it in those three years.
I've had Porsche 911s that I actually made money on over the years.
No surprise with this study. There's been a pernicious trend to vilify wealth and those who have it and that trend is growing. This study seems like a petty attempt to contribute to that effort. People resenting those who have the means to drive more expensive cars so they "study" driving habits and conclude they're all jerks. Now that's some hard science right there! Newton, Descarte and Bacon would be impressed!
I typically say you can tell you are in a good neighborhood when car's readily stop to let you cross, or people say thank you when you let them cross.
Yep, I always acknowledge people who hold up to let me cross - it's not only polite as a pedestrian, you're giving them positive feedback for being cooperative, which encourages them to continue :-)
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