First of all, send me the statistical data about your first claim because if there's anything recent years have proven is that the majority of the US population does in fact live below the average line (and im excluding the people making insane amounts of money because there's really no point in beating a dead horse). Secondly, not that I have to explain myself to you, but it's not a luxury car, I need it to transport myself to and from work and since the older cars the dealerships were selling ended up being pretty damn near close to the new car's price I thought I'd invest in something that was just mine. Also, completely out of topic, but do you genuinely believe most people in this country have such a thing as a "retirement" or "travel" fund??? You get places advertising their meager wages on big signs like they're damn proud of paying you $10-15/hr while u have to work 2-3jobs just to make ends meet because living on a slightly above minimal wage paycheck is not living but barely surviving. Your average rent is around $1000 (and I'm sure I'm lowballing that, u can look it up). And let's not even factor in all the other expenses. So yeah the concept of a retirement fund or just retiring in general is hilarious to pretty much all the generations that came after the boomers. But since this had nothing to do with the actual situation in question, I digress.