61% of people making over $250k/yr drive a Honda, Toyota or Ford

So what? Probably 61 pct of the country does. Meaningless stat.

I would buy a Lamborghini if I made that much. I don't think I ever will. I'm on 10% of that. I guess I never wanted to be sucked into the corporate world and for someone like google to come and take over my life and lure me in. It sucks having little money but better than stress and not having time to run. I wish I was good enough to make money from running like Bekele.

I make a lot more than $250K and I drive a trusty Honda accord. I used to have a Range Rover but it killed me watching all that money disappear every month. So I bought a reliable car for 1/3 the price and invest the difference. I'll never do luxury again. 3 times the cost for maybe a 10 percent better experience.

FIRE principles say drone the serviceable car, invest in retirement, pay off mortgage, etc. plus if you live in a city, your classy car will get tossed instantly, so makes more sense to drive the generic one that doesn’t Stand out.

I’m over that and drive a Subaru, is that ok?

My wife and I have household income 335k/year-probably closer to 375k this year

I have a 9 year old subaru, 125k miles -worth 9k

Wife bought a 3 year old Audi a4-worth 15k. Had to fill it up with premium gas yesterday, was hard to watch.

Cars are the biggest waste of money. Id rather go on a luxury vacation each year for 10k than buy a 50k car.

Dopey wrote:

So what? Probably 61 pct of the country does. Meaningless stat.

That's not how statistics works.

I always have a cool car to pick up chicks. To Hell with the price.

I have had 9 hondas and now drive a Toyota Tacoma......I must be in the 1%

Banana Bread wrote:

I would buy a Lamborghini if I made that much. I don't think I ever will. I'm on 10% of that. I guess I never wanted to be sucked into the corporate world and for someone like google to come and take over my life and lure me in. It sucks having little money but better than stress and not having time to run. I wish I was good enough to make money from running like Bekele.

That's the reason why you have to live on Banana bread buddy.

Yes... Subaru, Toyota, and Mazda. Haven’t had a car payment in in over 8 years.

Keep in mind that people (especially those who make a lot of money) often have multiple cars. If someone has a BMW sedan for daily use, a high end sports car for fun, and a 4-Runner to haul the dogs around, that person will say yes when asked if they drive a Toyota.

could have more than one car wrote:

Keep in mind that people (especially those who make a lot of money) often have multiple cars. If someone has a BMW sedan for daily use, a high end sports car for fun, and a 4-Runner to haul the dogs around, that person will say yes when asked if they drive a Toyota.

Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.

I'm in the income bracket referenced by the OP. I commute in an old Honda pilot. I also have a Porsche in the garage for weekend drives, date nights with my wife, and track days/autocross. Most in my suburban neighborhood have at least one beater car in the household fleet. Normally that beater is an old Japanese sedan or small CUV. For the bigger families it tends to be an old Suburban or other old GM full-size SUV.

Now, I used to live in a major city. There most high income, but not very high income people either don't have a car or only have an old beater because street parking is brutal and garage parking is prohibitively expensive unless you are in the 500K+ income bracket.

runnER/DR wrote:

3 times the cost for maybe a 10 percent better experience.

These types of comments are always dead giveaways to someone who has, in fact, never driven a luxury car or SUV. The difference between driving a plastic wind up toy that feels like a strong wind could knock it off the road and a properly engineered luxury car is night and day. Whether it's worth the cost is one thing, but "a 10 percent better experience" isn't even remotely close.

You just gotta get from point A to point B it doesn’t matter what kind of car you have and smart people get this

I make over 400k and drive a 2013 Buick Lacrosse, purchased from Carmax with 20,000 miles on it for 20k. I try to never spend more than 20k on cars. They are mostly about utility - getting from point a to point b - and it is foolish to spend a lot on a car. By the way, the Lacrosse is a nice car - about as nice as one would need - so I am not driving in a shabby vehicle.

Dave Ramsey, CFA wrote:

Discuss

Can you site a source? I feel like there are so many other economical brands out there such as GM/Chevy, Volkswagon, Nissan, etc. that this is a fake fact. Now if you said 61% of people who make that much drive a car that they paid less than $XX,000 for and it was a very economical number I would believe that. Most rich people don't spend big money on cars as they are depreciating item. Although enough do and there are so many brands out there I find this stat tough to believe.

yep this makes sense wrote:

I make over 400k and drive a 2013 Buick Lacrosse, purchased from Carmax with 20,000 miles on it for 20k. I try to never spend more than 20k on cars. They are mostly about utility - getting from point a to point b - and it is foolish to spend a lot on a car. By the way, the Lacrosse is a nice car - about as nice as one would need - so I am not driving in a shabby vehicle.

True to a point. If you were purely interested in utility, you could've purchased a Model T or a 1999 Crown Vic. Excellent principle, but most of us (including you) are interested in getting from Point A to Point B in comfort and maybe some style. By the way, you'd earn a helluva lot more style points with a Model T! :)

You can spend a lot of money on a Ford, Toyota or Honda. My neighbor is an oil and gas exec. He bought a loaded Highlander for about $45k. He used to drive a X5 but was sick of all the maintenance problems. Loaded Expeditions go for $50k+. Loaded Pilot goes for @$45k. So, it is not really about being crazy frugal as it is more a frustration with the pricing and performance of the European imports. And it is also a practical decision for many to have a vehicle that the kids/pets can trash instead of trying to keep a high end import clean all the time.

I actually think that the real financial drain of motor vehicles is not as much new v. used or Euro import v. domestic/Japanese. It is really going with something that is way bigger than any family ever really needs. I see low income people paying $15k for a very old high mileage gigantic Suburban and then get whacked with $2-3k in maintenance bills a year as everything on the vehicle is falling apart. For the same money, they could get a certified Prius, Camry, CRX, etc. and have zero maintenance costs for years.