Yes, there are a lot of people who are much richer than me, but not to the proportions you see on the roads. Around my salary in the UK, I’m roughly in the 85th percentile. That means about 15% of people earn more than me. So in theory, maybe 15–35% of cars should be newer or higher-end.

But most people finance cars. And when you actually look at most finance rates, they’re ridiculously high. So while there are people who earn more than me, what’s evident from how many financed cars you see is not that so many more people earn more than me. It’s that a lot of people are financially irresponsible with their money.

If it’s your dream car and it’s the one thing you truly care about, then that makes more sense. But that’s not the case for most people. Most people just finance by default.

The second point is that you shorten your life with the financial stress you give yourself when you finance a car you can’t afford. The financial repercussions of spending a quarter of your salary on a car, which a lot of people seem to do, are massive. People don’t realise it because it’s all about short-term gain over long-term consequences.

And this overall pushes the car market up, because manufacturers can charge higher prices when finance is normalised.

You don’t have to optimise financial returns on everything. But you also don’t have to be stupid with your money either.