I had a few very smart friends who were very successful in business at a young age. They all sort of celebrated having made it by buying high-end Audi’s when they were the hot luxury cars in the mid-2000’s.
The cars weren’t very reliable (even dumb shit like the electric windows would break) and the repairs were notably more expensive than they should have been. One of them explained that he finally understood that someone willing to pay triple the price of a standard car can be charged triple for repairs too.
He sold the luxury car and bought a Prius and said it was 100x better just because of how reliable it was, and it had the same bells and whistles anyway.
I remember 7-8 years ago taking a trip down HWY35, then dropped down into Portola Valley. 5-10M dollar houses. Lot of them had a Prius sitting in the driveway next way more expensive cars.
I mean, I didn't own the car so I have no idea what "options" a luxury car could have over a standard car with all the extra options included, but he sure seemed to think that the Prius had exactly the same things he enjoyed in the Audi.
Note, we were in Austin where something like leather seats would be a bad idea.
$15k for a refurbished battery from another old broken car. Once fixed, the cars resell value is at about $20k.
And they took my battery back to sell to someone else for $15k.
Definitely feel like a HUGE sucker for supporting them. This thing was $101k new.