[Closed] Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the car as status symbol?

I think some people are in danger of falling over backwards they're looking so far down their noses at nice cars.

Don't forget, car's can actualy be fun, they don't have to be a dull grey £400 banger that does absolutely nothing to improve your life other than get from A 2 B.

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About to get uprated dampers, polybushes, new kingpins, and lowered at the back and lowered and uprated springs at the front.

What if getting from A to B improves your life?

What if getting from A to B improves your life?

My other car is a Focus C-max, which is a hatefully dull grey place to be, it's cheep and functional, it's better handling and faster than the MG. However if I had to nuke one from orbit and eraze it from history, it'd be the Ford.

Life's too short to spend n hours on the motorway in a dull car, but not to short to spend n+1 hours doing it in the MG grinning like and idiot. I imagine a quick beemer has a similar effect with the added benefit of it only taking n-1 hours.

The MG's different though isn't it, slow, small , no manpart enlargement qualities whatsoever but just a nice thing to own and enjoy.

Whereas a massively expensive new car is just like a lesser model but a bit faster(that you can't use) and looks like an 80's Aiwa HiFi and will make everyone think you got into hock for status symbol because properly rich people drive W reg Peugeots.

Not for the foreseeable future are cars as status symbols in decline. Just look at the new car sales figures - highest ever. All the higher cost manufacturers are having a sales boom.

Had 2 customers both worked for a well known banking companys, one got to give the keys out to new cars, he said fully grown and aledgedley mature adults would throw a strop when they didnt get a car of the colour they wanted, and when the bank lost the contract to do german finance they stopped issuing staff with german cars and you had to have a Renult laguna, or a ford, as a company car, people left their jobs because they couldnt have a german car.

Second chap so chuffed he got a german car, and so pissed of when a few weeks later was made redundant and lost it along with a cheap mortgage, he had.

Lots of comapny cars usually have the firm who leases them on the number plate,easy to point out to obnoxious drivers, just say i see you have a comapny vehicle, that can be taken off you at any time,always gets a result.

D0NK - Member

In the Noughties, I believe BMW 3-series became the best-selling car in the UK.
wasn't that due to companies switching to bmw for their fleets?

Haven't noticed the number of car commuters dropping, what do official figures say? I just don't get the whole "status afforded by accoutrements". I know on a road near me (where I think all the houses are <£100k) the multitude of shiny mercs audis and bmws outside suggests some people feel very strongly about it

I was thinking EXACTLY this the other week as i was riding down a street near me. The houses are probably in the vicinity of 80 to 95k. There's mercs/jags/bmw's galore.

I was thinking EXACTLY this the other week as i was riding down a street near me. The houses are probably in the vicinity of 80 to 95k. There's mercs/jags/bmw's galore.

I noticed something similar commuting between Teesside and Reading. The cars at the Middlesborough office were on average nicer, presumably because they all had small/no mortgages but similar earnings (averageing 60k I guess).

I own a 3-series it's not a status symbol, it's 13 years old in what my work colleagues call grandad green, cost me just over a grand the other year, just like how they drive and the way they are put together. Had a Lamborghini in work the other day, yes it's pretty but completely pointless, but that apparently is a status symbol, the only status it had to me was that it's depreciation over the next three years was probably going to be more than my mortgage, so totally bonkers.

Cars are status symbols for certain sections of society, and there has never been so many different sections to society. This for me means that cars will always be status symbols to some, however as people care less about others outside of their social circle, overall it appears that people don't really care what the next man is driving.

Just a shame that despite being better than ever for long term durability, cars are getting treated as disposable objects in the same way clothes and gadgets are. Did I really see adverts for "this season's Ford Fiesta" ? 😯

As the Mercedes salesman (very honestly ) told my wife's Grandfather when he went to look at a cavernous coupe - "If you can afford to buy it outright then why on earth do you need it?"

I think there's a certain amount of reverse snobbery about cars now (just like TV's) If you have a battered old motor that's hardly ever washed sat outside of a nice house it implies that you're too busy enjoying life to give a damn. The only people I know with very shiny cars are generally very uptight.

Don't forget, car's can actualy be fun, they don't have to be a dull grey £400 banger that does absolutely nothing to improve your life other than get from A 2 B.

An MG [i]is[/i] an old banger. Just one with an inflated price tag 😉

You buy cars like that though because you like cars. It's not a status symbol. People just think you're having a mid-life crisis, or you're some weirdo who tinkers away in the garage every night. And maybe you are? But you're probably having fun in it either way.

I like cars, but many people seem to buy them mainly to impress others with.

No car is a status symbol? Who'd a think it I'm a trend setter! 😆

Even the least car orientated people i know use the car as a status symbol these days,

I gave a senior manager in my office a lift to the station one night , as i clicked the beeper on my car and the lights flashed he turned round and said ...."thats your car - you get paid what you get paid and THATS your car" - it was a 15 year old vaux frontera in rust and burgandy.

My reply was you can walk then .... Its reliable and owes me nothing why would i sign up to a large chunk of my wages for years to end up in the same situation in a few years .

He was most pleased when i told him i had bought a new car - until i said it was a 10 year old diesel berlingo.

Thing is - i like cars , i like tinkering with them , i like maintaining them , i like learning about how particular cars work - i actually despise driving - its mind numbing. I like gokarting - i like 4x4 trials , how ever in my mind i can seperate this from the public roads and so driving on the public road kills me. I hate getting into cars with friends who drive too fast for conditions- i have a couple of friends i wont get into the car with now - one who liked to overtake on blind corners who when i pointed it out he said - " i know but statistically on this road we will not meet anything"

The advent of pcp means folks treat the car like the latest mobile phone and pour thousands down the drain . Never mind means plenty of cheap cars for me.

seosamh77 - Member
No car is a status symbol? Who'd a think it I'm a trend setter!

Only if it's a prestige [i]No car[/i] 🙂

Ugh! That MG up there ^ has rubber bumpers!!! Why would you bother?

Why not get a decent British car like a TR4?

Cars are one of those cool things that can be both fun, and incredibly practical. I love driving my car, it also gets 60mpg and transports enormous amounts of things. Practical and fun is a venn diagram, not 2 boxes, tick one.

Mercedes E300 estate is THE ultimate status symbol car. It says; you needed an estate car, and you bought the car, and you won't ever need another. And you have a real Estate on which you park the car.

All of this stuff is cyclical I think....

A few years ago it was all about how big your telly was, now there is a similar snob-factor in not having a telly at all.

There are loads of examples of reverse-snobbery on here too - rigid/single-speed/steel hardtails.

Some sociology student has probably done a thesis on it (including the resurgence of the middle class beard) - but in the meantime, check-out "status anxiety" by Alain de Botton. Very interesting.

Having a cheap house and expensive car could be a result of status compensation through conspicuous consumption or it might reflect sources of income that are off the books or both. I used to live near people in a terraced street who had great big and new Chelsea tractors, they were often corner shop or restaurant owners.
Veblen wrote about this stuff 100 years ago.

that it's depreciation over the next three years was probably going to be more than my mortgage, so totally bonkers.

What does it matter, you cant take the house with you when you're dead any more than a car?

At work our clients tend to be decision makers, managers, directors, stuff like that. Pretty much every one of them rocks up in a big new car. Audis, BMWs, Bentleys, Mercedes, etc. It's definitely very much a status symbol amongst that demograph. Our own MD claims the only reason he owns a big car is because it's expected... He 100% believes it helps business (bearing in mind it's not used for business, it's just parked outside the office).

That's interesting. What sort of business is it? Sales?

We've got a very different set up here. Some of the secretaries and junior staff have nice cars, but anyone on the board or with any sort of clout has a Volvo, Skoda, Nissan etc. Someone once arrived in his wife's Cayman and never heard the end of it. Our company car list is full of Audis/Mercs/BMWs but very few in the car park (although many take the cash instead anyway).

That's a mix of lawyers, finance people, architects and engineers. Lots of good schools/universities, RP accents and signet rings floating around though, so I suspect not many see a mass produced bit of metal as a status symbol!

(I do drive a Mercedes btw, but it's 10.5 years old and it's an estate, so it's not exactly giving away my incredible success in life 🙂 )

ourmaninthenorth - Member
I'm a bit like Nemesis - have the type of job that should suggest German car, but choose to stick with my 4 year-old Mazda hatchback.

All of four years old? -I've never owned a car that new, I'm just about to go shopping in my 20 year old Golf.
It's obviously what [i]my[/i] job suggests.

Whilst its nice to have nice things I think the car has lost some of its appeal as a status symbol. There will always be some who have to have the latest and greatest but maybe finally its starting to change, I'd love to think so.

Doesn't mean you cant enjoy cars, there are some fine cars around.

Perhaps as a bunch of cyclists we still do our willy waving only now its with the latest/greatest bikes?

I think, on the whole, that people on here appear a little more snobbish about status symbols than people I know in everyday life.

However, people with nice cars on here seem to have them because they appreciate nice cars, rather than any ulterior motive.
Good on them - if that's what they want, go for it.
Not much snobbishness on the motoring threads.

Many choose different things to be snobbish about - size of waistline, supermarkets, pies, barbeques.

And bikes.
The Surly threads are hilarious.

😀

At work our clients tend to be decision makers, managers, directors, stuff like that. Pretty much every one of them rocks up in a big new car. Audis, BMWs, Bentleys, Mercedes, etc. It's definitely very much a status symbol amongst that demograph. Our own MD claims the only reason he owns a big car is because it's expected... He 100% believes it helps business (bearing in mind it's not used for business, it's just parked outside the office)

It can be a double edge sword. In some lines of business you need to wear your success outwardly - your clients get reassurance from the business you represent being healthy and wealthy. But it can cut the other way to.

There was a documentary years ago about an old Rolls Royce in which they contacted and interviewed all the people who had ever owned it - aristocrats to begin with and then various business and upper middle class types until it got old and tired and cheap and was bought by a small business owner (can't remember if he was in the building trade or scrap trade). He bought it for a laugh really but him it was a terrible decision because although he'd bought it for the same price as a Sierra it gave the impression he had more money than he knew what to do with. He started losing loads of work as the implied wealth gave the impression he was overcharging for his services and it made his customers feel they could get a keener deal elsewhere.

Thats true enough. My cousin, who's a proper petrol head, drove a Porsche 911. When he jacked in his corporate senior management position and started his own business, it had to go. He (grudgingly) replaced it with your standard german rep-mobile because he said, as a small business owner looking for business, pulling into the car park of a potential client in a brand new Porsche doesn't do you any favours

Mind you, a few years down the line and he's just taken delivery of a rather lovely F Type.

We had a pitch for a new PR company. One lady turned up from London in a Porsche Cayenne.....It wasn't so much the cost of the car but the fact that it was such a ridiculous choice....needless to say contract was awarded elsewhere....

My last company car was a BMW 1-series.
I got it because the overall cost of ownership (lease + tax + fuel) was better than a Skoda Octavia/Ford focus/various other cars of comparable size. (due to lower depreciation)
However, the list price was over £25k, and if it had been 'my money' i'd have bought an Octavia.
I think a lot of new 'premium' brands are either company cars, or on personal lease plans.
Several people in my office take cash instead of a company car, and use it to lease some pretty nice cars (Golf R, Merc Coupe, etc)

I've got a Passat estate now, I like it because it is a bit more classless and anonymous - but again, with a ticket price of £24k, I'm only driving it 'cos it is a company car.

Not the same comparison though is it

OK I'll make it less tenuous.

You can buy a £10k second hand car that will be equally as capable and as much fun as a £50k brand new car. You can also buy a £1k second hand MTB that will be equally as capable and as much fun as a £5k brand new bike.

Some people like to spend their money on cars, some people spend it on bikes. Some spend it on both. How many times do "we" joke about the nice cars at trail centres with the nice bikes on the roof.

I think what we are seeing is the age of reliable cars transforming the second hand car market. People realise that a 10 year old 3 Series with 100k on the clock is still an immensely capable and enjoyable car. Until a couple of years ago I had a 10 year old Boxster that cost me the right side of £10k. Driving anywhere was a hugely enjoyable experience and it cost me half the price of a new basic Golf. Why wouldn't you?

We had a new MD turn up to our little provincial office to tell a colleague that he couldn't have the £3K payrise that he had been verbally promised 6 months earlier by the previous IT director, the usual reasons -
bad business time, lack of money, etc, etc - unfortunately he turned up in an aston martin to deliver the news.

my colleague quit very soon afterwards - shame he was bloody good

I imagine a quick beemer has a similar effect with the added benefit of it only taking n-1 hours.

A quick beemer on the motorway is just a c-max with less noise and a nicer interior.

A lot of people do not own cars, they merely rent a seat in them. The deals I see about, especially for some prestige stuff are ridiculous and, for someone with a balanced financial outlook, total non-starters.

Granted there are those to whom £100k is small change, but there are also many spunking £5 to £10k p.a. in depreciation/rental that they can ill afford.

A quick beemer on the motorway is just a c-max with less noise and a nicer interior.

But those things are quite high up my priority list. A quiet drive a huge difference to me on long trips.

What about heated wing mirrors?

Heated steering wheel is where its at now...

Until a couple of years ago I had a 10 year old Boxster that cost me the right side of £10k. Driving anywhere was a hugely enjoyable experience and it cost me half the price of a new basic Golf. Why wouldn't you?

And that is exactly the point isn't it, your 10 yr old Boxster is not a status symbol car, it's an 'I Like cars and driving' car, my thoguhts were more about people who are not into cars at all, but have brand new (formerly) premium brand cars on the drive and change every 2-3 years because of the status they think it infers.

If I had 20 k to blow on cars I would blow it on older nice/fun car and possibly a cheapy utility car, I wouldn't be buy the status symbol new saloon etc, where as if I had hundreds of K I think I'd just buy whatever I liked the look of, I dont think other peoples feelings would come into my decision making process at all either way, but for a lot of people it does seemt o matter.

It's a bizarre paradox isn't it, the middle of the road boring family car costing more and thus being used as a 'look at me I have a [i]new [/i]car', where as the cheaper but older car is seen as old and less good*

I pay a lot more attention to classics, performance and properly modified interesting cars with character than I do to luxury barges.
The former reveals normally what the owner thinks and is interested in, the latter normally reveals what the owner wants [i]others [/i] to think about them.

*obviously all of my comments are reflective of where I live and the things I see, it may be different in other areas, but around here it seems that if you're an up and coming young go-getter trying to show off your success then you do it with an expensive new mid range car (often on lease) rather than a nicely run in older but nicer/more fun car.

If you are already have wads of cash then you're more likely to be seen in an older car and not shouting about your money, or on the flip side have some outrageous supercar or luxury GT car that you bought because you like it rather than for what other people may think of it.

Heated steering wheel is where its at now...

What does it matter, you cant take the house with you when you're dead any more than a car?

A quick beemer on the motorway is just a c-max with less noise and a nicer interior.

But those things are quite high up my priority list. A quiet drive a huge difference to me on long trips

*not that I see my house as an investment, it's my home.

footflaps - Member
There is also, increasingly, a feeling that 'prestige' motors can be rather vulgar and I know a good many people who also wish to hide their wealth for various reasons.
Working across the road from a Bentley Dealership, I'd say sadly not....

Remember, not all of the people driving cars out of showrooms are 'buying' them and fewer still can actually afford them. Just because the smarmy man in the nice suit says you can, does not mean you should.

When America sneezes, we have a habit of catching a cold: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-08-20/car-repos-soar-70-auto-subprime-bubble-pops-its-contained-promises-fed

Like I said I don't get the cheap house expensive car bit. We all have our own priorities but don't most of us spend more time in our homes than in our motor? Plus houses are (generally) sound investments* whereas new cars are a money pit.

But if you are the hypothetical northerner with your £100k house, mortgage paid off by 30 and a disposable income, no expen sive hobbies, and no need for a bigger house, why wouldn't you buy/lease a nice new car?

apples/oranges? is that not down to the beemer likely being a saloon? I though saloons were naturally quieter than hatchback/mpv/other designs that maximise the available space, or is it only premium german cars that have quiet interiors?

I think you're getting way too far into the detail of a hypothetical example. If you were faced with a decision between doing a long motorway journey in a brand new 5 series or a 10 year old Focus saloon, with no other factors to consider other than which car would you rather spend the next 5 hours in, would anyone chose the Focus? Not nececeraly a status thing, but if I had some spare cash and was doing the miles I was a couple of years ago I'd have a nice big mile munching 5 series. And inverse-snobs be damned.

But surely that would negate the use of driving gloves, thus greatly reducing a gentleman's in car wardrobe options. No use having a nice motor if you've no style

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I don't understand why you all seem to think that other's perception of a car is the main factor? The owner's perception is the most important factor. People buy or lease new cars mostly because they are lovely and shiny and new and nice things for people to own and drive themselves. I really don't think visible status symbols are at the front of people's minds. New cars are *intrinsically* nice.

thisisnotaspoon - Member
I think you're getting way too far into the detail of a hypothetical example. If you were faced with a decision between doing a long motorway journey in a brand new 5 series or a 10 year old Focus saloon, with no other factors to consider other than which car would you rather spend the next 5 hours in, would anyone chose the Focus? Not nececeraly a status thing, but if I had some spare cash and was doing the miles I was a couple of years ago I'd have a nice big mile munching 5 series. And inverse-snobs be damned.

The owner's perception is the most important factor.....New cars are *intrinsically* nice.

agreed, but

I really don't think visible status symbols are at the front of people's minds

I disagree, I've heard far too many people making comments about particular brands/spec levels and how they'd never buy an X, for a lot of people it is a big factor, maybe not for you or me, but for a lot of people it is.

Witness the de-badged base-spec German status wagon vs fully kitted out Korean alternative, granted there's possibly some cross-over points on quality etc you could discuss or argue about but if you were basing your decisions purely on specs alone then the brand would be irrelevant. And brand is all about image, not just to the owner but also how they think it portrays them to others.

And there's the curious VAG group thing, VW/Seat/Audi/Skoda, a lot of shared technology, but pitched at different markets and aspirations...

My Parents have just bought a new car and the discussions they had were quite interesting to listen in to, my mum wanted a 3 series because 'I've always wanted one', my Dad's take on it was 'I don't want to be seen in a BMW, too posh!'

Probably a bit of an outdated view point i'll admit, but it illustrates the point quite well.