Social Comparison and Spending on Vehicles

Does your car bring you joy… or just debt?
Dave and Shaun explore why cars are a huge budget killer for so many — and when buying one might actually be worth it.

💈💈💈

This is why I really love positive psychology, is it helps us understand what do we savour in life? Like what is important for us to savour in life? How do we like to spend our finite time? ’cause we never get back to this day. Then it helps curb us against the, the reactive, more scarcity mindset that we fall prey when we have social comparison.

No, you said all that very well, and I’m amazed at the power of social comparison. I, I’m fanatical about how much people spend on cars. And I don’t judge, by the way, any other spending. So when I see all these spending summaries over the last 40 years, especially the last 10, I never say, you know, that’s crazy what you’re doing there.

You’re just trying to help in any way. Cars, on the other hand, drive me nuts because so many people spend so much on cars, they’re squeezing out any potential savings, especially in these high cost days, high real estate cost days. Again, doesn’t that go back to exactly what you’re talking about though, the social comparisons, the trying to send the message out, the car really represents you.

It’s an extension of you, none of which should be the case, or is the case.

Yeah, Dave, because of your work, I drive a 2012 Ford F-150 and uh, my wife has a 2012 Honda. But yeah, I, I’ve full subscribed to this vehicle thing and I’ve determined though I don’t like vehicles, I, I actually don’t care about vehicles.

Uh, Liz Dun actually did some really good, great research around people’s happiness when they buy vehicles and it, it goes 100% in line with how you’ve already thought except there was a nuance. ’cause all of this is nuance. ’cause we’re humans, like, I mean, we are complex creatures.

If someone really loves vehicles, like, you know, those guys who, like our girls, who like to like pet their car and they understand every nuance behind the engine. We go from spending something for like a social status to like an experience. And we know experiences have enduring levels of satisfaction in life.

Absolutely.

I wanna address that. ’cause some people are like, no, cars can’t, and, and it’s true. But like many things, there’s two sides to each thing.

No, I think that’s an important distinction. You’re right. For the car fanatic, the true car fanatic, it is a little different because it is an experience, but for the rest of us, and that’s probably 90 odd percent, the habituation sets in so remarkably quickly. It’s crazy. I just had a family member say this, said, you know, I got tired of my new car for three weeks and I thought three weeks is actually pretty good compared to what I’m normally like.

Like I’m excited for about four days.