The wealthiest Europeans I know drive the cheapest vehicles. Modesty is wealth in many parts of the world, but perhaps not in California (the authors are affiliated with UC Berkeley).
That may well be true of the people you know, but in general the relationship is exactly what one would expect: the higher people's income, the more expensive their car purchases.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/economic-bulletin/articles/2...
Full paper: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/economic-bulletin/articles/2...
That has been my experience as well. Ive experienced people who are more image conscious to appear to be in an imaginary competition with others and they tend to act accordingly.
After a point, how much someone chooses to spend on their car is about their values more than their wealth.
I once lived in a street with many parked cars worth almost as much the houses of their owners. They were clearly bought (well, financed) as status symbols. I now live in a more affluent, desirable area where the cars are much more modest despite higher wealth and social status of their owners (doctors, scientists etc).
Yeah, that's a fun meme, I'm sure it still gets a lot of likes on Instagram.
The data shows otherwise, however.
To quote the paper:
"Our first two studies were naturalistic field studies, and examined whether upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals while driving. In study 1, we investigated whether upper-class drivers were more likely to cut off other vehicles at a busy four-way intersection with stop signs on all sides. As vehicles are reliable indicators of a person's social rank and wealth (15), we used observers’ codes of vehicle status (make, age, and appearance) to index drivers’ social class."
Clarkson had a line about estate owners driving "ancestral transport", invariably a land rover as old as the trees it lives amongst.
Ultimate statement about european land owners driving ancient vehicles: https://youtu.be/R8-9oIq1hxw?si=Ogg7C5MjFRoDdC9R
They can. It just gets reported to FinCEN, which might attract unwanted attention. The same applies to buying a $200k lambo with cash, which has to be reported to the IRS[1], on top of being registered with the state DMV.
[1] https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...
Some people buy used hot rods on Facebook Marketplace for around $100k, then trade them in to a dealership. They claim they only paid $5k for the car and their labor increased the value to $100k, then use that trade-in value to get the car they actually want.
Because of this there was always some risk of the government locking up bank accounts, so physical assets were purchased and spread around to avoid seizure of all finances which can prevent a person from fighting a legal battle.
Not saying I agree with GP, but your point doesn't hold up.
No, but sometimes they can finance a very (comparatively) expensive car for way too many years at an insane percentage just to appear wealthier than they are. And that stomps on the study just as much as millionaires driving a Camry IMO.
But driving a bently is "some work", so I would rather prefer the small e-vehicle :-))
In fact, it usually takes them down the path of flipping the cars and falling up instead of down.
Short version: I would go rather in leight-weight E-vehicle than in a heavy bently, navigating like an aircraft carrier