Originally Posted by
Adams Girl
Very true! I love the lack of car snobbery here. I couldn't stand it in the US where, because I had something smaller than an SUV, I was obviously poor (I wasn't, but who cares?) and to be looked down upon by those who would happily drown themselves in debt, all for a status symbol that couldn't even thank them back.
I really love not having a car loan, and also being happy with what I drive, and also not giving a toss about
what other people drive, but
how they drive as that has far more effect on the community.
Well that is true - cars are not a status symbol in NZ.
Not sure though I would laud that as some sort of good thing; car accidents are sky high and the quality of driving is woeful in NZ, one of the negatives; the WOF is inconsistent and incredibly easy to get a car through; a modern car has lots of driver aids, ABS and often excellent crumple zones/pedestrian hitting designs. I dread to think of the number of deaths of motorists and pedestrians due to some old piece of Japanese automatic rubbish driving around which makes up most of the cars on the roads.
People caring what you drive as you can harm others with it is a pretty good thing imo!
Question as well is what you're happy with - if you don't care about cars, you're fine - plenty of low mileage nondescript stuff which gets you from A-B - but if you see a car as something to be enjoyed, well......very small % of cars on the roads which would be enjoyable to drive. I went in a new Toyota Camry Auto the other day. The motoring equivalent of bran flakes.