Originally Posted by JetRanger
(Post 7723855)
IMHO, I truly believe if ppl are brutally honest with themselves, they would admit (at least to themselves) the overwhelmingly primary reason they buy a G (or an S-Class, etc.) is so others will think they are some kind of a richie-richie big shot. Fact is, most G-owners are anything but truly rich, as they buy these cars on time, or lease em, as truth be told, they could absolutely not afford to lay down the necessary hard cash for an outright, full purchase. Obviously, there are exceptions, but I believe this is broadly the typical case. I recall one of my MBA finance profs talking about this, saying when you buy a car with all cash, one should have at least 10 times this amount in liquid cash assets. He also said if you buy a private jet, you should have 20 times the purchase price in cash assets, or you can't afford to fly and maintain it. You'll find the older you get, the less this status fakery means, if anything at all, to impress strangers with your phony façade of projecting fake wealth. In fact, happily, it eventually becomes absolutely meaningless. A good friend of mine is a banker, and he is constantly laughing how some bloke came in that particular day and secured a bank loan to buy a new high end Merc, or a $40,000 Rolex, and they barely qualified for the loan, let alone had sufficient liquid cash on hand to pay for the car outright. Kind of sad, really.
