i have always viewed any vehicle as a wealth dump and so many people I know buy well out of their price range in some sort of poor effort of flexing wealth that they don't actually have. I have always found car payments, large car payments, to be one of the biggest drains on the working class and it is very effective. There are these places here in the states that intentionally target people with horrible credit ratings and rope them into really terrible long-term payments plans that they are definitely going to default on. There is a huge industry that revolves around repossessing these cars with a drive by tow truck operation and there are video channels that make a circus out of this for internet points.

One side of me feels bad for these people who are being targeted, but another side shrugs its shoulders at how they are the victims of their own stupidity.

For me, I have always had a rather crap looking car that is functional. I have only ever owned a brand new car once, and that was a very basic sedan and the only reason I bought it was because the US car industry was in the toilet and every company was offering 0% financing. It was nice owning a brand new car sure, but there wasn't really any benefit beyond the initial glee of that wonderful new car smell.

I disagree about property not being an asset though. But this is only if you aren't a slave to the payments. Now that I am in the clear with my property I am just angry that we as a society have accepted that the government is allowed to tax you to have property. There is some talks about abolishing land/property taxes and that would be wonderful.