While I don’t have the figures at my disposal, I recall reading that a much higher percentage of luxury vehicles are leased, as compared to lower-priced vehicles.
A guy with whom I went to high school has a gambling addiction, and has very little to show for his 40 years of working–including at a supervisory level.
Every 2 or 3 years, he leases a new Caddy–which he can ill afford.
I asked him why he insists on possessing a more expensive car than he can afford, and why he insists on possessing it in the most expensive way, and his answer was (believe it or not)… The doorman at the casino/hotel is just SO impressed when I pull up in my new Caddy!
Yup, that should be everyone’s goal in life–to impress the doorman at the casino/hotel…
Well if you’d asked me I’d have said no one would buy a Porsche SUV, but now they sell over 16,000 of them per year. I’ve reached the conclusion that I really don’t understand the trends of upmarket buyers.
Im with you on the luxury leases. There is a guy in the neighborhood that had been leasing 750iL Bimmers to haul the customers around in, but now has a 435 Grand Coupe. Another owns an electrical supply company and gets new SUVs or luxury pickups every couple of years. He currently has an Escalade, Escalade EXT, and two Range Rovers.
Y’know, I always mention when discussing luxury car leases that they affect the budgets of companies differently than individuals, and that it’s used as an inexpensive “perk” to attract good employment prospects, but jt’s post reminded me of another reason companies lease. When you entertain customers, you represent the company, and it’s important for the business’ image that it appear successful. There’s an old axiom in business: “always look bigger and more successful than you are”. The internet has changed the magnitude of the impact of that, but for a great many businesses the face-to-face relationships are still critical, and impressing a potential customer can still make the difference between success and failure. For large long term contracts your company simply MUST appear capable of handling the work.
Vehicles can matter greatly in business. 30 years or so ago I knew someone who owned a small concrete and excavating company in a rural area of upstate NH. He had to buy a Ford, GM, or Dodge pickup. He said “if I drive up to a potential client in a Japanese pickup, he won’t even talk to me”. In that business, in that area, the vehicle made the difference between getting contracts and getting ignored.
That reminds me of a relative of mine, who is a semi-retired realtor
She definitely placed high value on APPEARING successful. At first she had a nice Benz E-class, which she kept looking immaculate, and I kept it in great mechanical shape.
After it was several years old, she decided she needed a newer car, to appear successful
So she got a very nice Lexus GS, also kept it looking immaculate
But it was all appearances . . . she didn’t sell very many houses. And the problem was that she didn’t put in the work. She didn’t do enough advertising, she didn’t keep in touch well enough, etc.
A very nice lady, but she wasn’t able to keep up with modern practices, as far as selling houses nowadays goes
I hate to say this, but I will . . . when I go house shopping, to to open houses, etc. . . . even if I’m not truly in the market, I do look what cars the realtors are driving. I tend to file that kind of information away in my head, so appearances really do make a difference
And meanwhile the realtor that we used when we bought our last house was driving a 20 year old Century.
Look at it this way: if the realtor is driving a $70,000 car, and you assume from that that she’s making a lot of money, that means she’s getting higher commissions, which means she might not be helping you negotiate that price down as much as she perhaps should be.
I know the lady in the 2-decade-old GM is negotiating those prices (and therefore her commissions) down, and I also know she’s not trying to BS me with appearances.
I dunno, it’s just me but I really don’t pay much attention to what they drive unless it is a Lincoln or Caddy or something. That to me is over the top and I really kind of have a negative view of people that drive those anyway. As long as it’s a decent car and well maintained, I think that’s it. In the old days most would be a little upscale with Olds or Pontiac instead of Chevy, but that was flashy enough. Remember “The Millionaire Next Door”, rarely flaunts their wealth with flashy cars.
I’m of the same opinion as shadowfax. When I’m footing the bill, the LAST thing I want to see is flashy and expensive. Who do you think is paying for that? I have a prediction for you, it won’t be me…
A lot depends on the customers. A luxury car makes sense if the realtor deals with rich folks, but not if the customers are middle income folks. It’s OK to look successful, but not too successful.
Point was a lot of people with money live frugally and don’t look like they have money. Guess it just depends. Now our orthopedic surgeon had great suits and a nice car and I liked that.
I actually used my relative, the realtor, one time, when I bought a house
And she did ALL of those things you guys mentioned . . . she definitely looked out for my best interests, and made sure I go the best deal possible, while also ensuring I don’t pay any BS fees I wasn’t supposed to
Car aside, she didn’t sell enough houses to have a a comfortable living standard for herself. If not for her husband, she would have been in a devastating financial situation
She often drove customers around for various reasons, and it was important for her to maintain the look of success, even though she really wasn’t
In my neck of the woods, you won’t see any realtors showing up to an open house in a 20-year old car, no matter how immaculate it looks. They don’t all drive fancy new BMWs or Audis. Some of them drive nice mid-level SUVs. But they aren’t old, and they keep them looking glossy
I’m just stating the facts . . . you don’t have to like them
I AM the type of person that tends to look at what kind of cars are in neighborhoods, and who’s driving what. When I see too many really expensive and flashy cars in a not-so-nice working class neighborhood, I tend to worry that somebody is living beyond their means, and may wind up letting the house fall into disrepair, or may even eventually lose it. Although by the time somebody actually is forced out of their house, it usually has looked like dirt for some time. Many of my colleagues have been guilty of this, and they have paid a heavy price for their indulgences
Back in the early 1960s, I attended a small college where everyone knew everything that was going on. The president of the institution drove an ordinary Chevrolet station wagon and the family only owned that one car. My senior year, the board of trustees decided to provide a car for the college president. I didn’t know what car had been purchased until I was walking into town and the president offered me a ride which I accepted. The car was the bottom of the line Chevrolet Biscayne. The president was working a manual transmission. There was no sun visor on the passenger side. I made some sarcastic comment about the car and the president said “I picked the car out. Remember, I raise money for this college. We need to look like we spend our money wisely. How much would you give if I arrived in a Cadillac?”. Some years later when I was a faculty member at a state supported university, I was having lunch in the faculty dining room with a colleague from the physics department. Three upper level administrators joined us at the table and began talking about what was the best car for people in their positions to drive. They all agreed that a Cadillac was too showy, but that the big Oldsmobile 98 reflected the importance of their positions. My colleague from physics tired of this nonsense and looked over me and asked, “What do you drive?” to which I replied “I drive a beat up old Rambler. It gives me the scholarly image”. That quickly ended the conversation. For my last 33 years of my 44 years at the university, I drove my 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon.
LOL, great story! Thanks.
They must have been out of Volvos… I though all profs from the '60s drove Volvos. Or Saabs.
I test drove a Saab once. I drove a hardtop (sedan I think) first and was totally underwhelmed. Seemed competent, but totally boring. I also tried a droptop and it felt… well, like they’d forgotten to reinforce the undercarriage to compensate for the missing roof structure.
That must have been a long time ago. During the 2000s (probably earlier), Saabs were structurally overbuilt. GM tried to change that to make Saabs price competitive, but Saab refused to do it. Their propensity for overbuilding the cars is the primary reason they went out of business. You may have seen the Top Gear episode where Clarkson presented an homage to Saab. They dropped a Saab and a BMW 3-Series on their roofs from about 10 feet. The Bimmer’s roof was crushed, but the Saab roof remained structurally sound.
I have lived in a university city on the midwest since 1946. The city has never had a Volvo agency or Saab agency. In fact, there has never been a Mercedes Benz or BMW dealership. I was on the faculty of the university from 1965-2011. There were a few professors and administrators who owned a Mercedes Benz or a BMW, but with the nearest dealers 55 miles away, most of us didn’t consider owning one. When I first joined the faculty in 1965, many of my colleagues drove VW Beetles. The common car today in the faculty parking lots is the Toyota Camry for the older faculty and the Toyota Corolla or Prius for the younger faculty. I remember two faculty that joined my department that owned Volvos when they came, but had so much trouble getting service and repairs, they soon traded them for Chevrolets.
