Why We Buy the Car We Don’t Need

A Rolls-Royce, Ferrari or Bentley performs broadly the same fundamental task as a perfectly respectable family saloon.

 

It moves people.

 

Which rather begs the question: why does anyone spend £300,000 doing something that £30,000 can accomplish?

 

Abraham Maslow may have supplied part of the answer — in 1943.

 

♔ Full Story

 

▪️ Psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed that human motivation progresses through needs: physiological survival, safety, belonging, esteem and, ultimately, self-actualisation.

 

▪️ Applying that thinking to cars and the bottom of the pyramid is straightforward. Transport satisfies a practical requirement:

 

I need to get there.

 

▪️ Move upwards, and things become more interesting.

 

A Mercedes-Benz or Range Rover might communicate achievement and status.

 

Ferrari, Bentley, and Rolls-Royce take it further: craftsmanship, exclusivity, and identity become as important as transportation.

 

▪️ At the very top, however, luxury can become surprisingly personal.

 

The collector buying the car he dreamed about at age twelve may care very little whether anybody else notices.

 

A bespoke Rolls-Royce, carefully specified Porsche or long-sought Ferrari can become an expression of taste rather than wealth.

 

▪️ That is where prestige becomes something more interesting than conspicuous consumption.

 

♔ Bottom line:

 

Perhaps the greatest luxury isn’t owning something because other people recognise its value.

 

▪️ It’s reaching the point where you choose it simply because you do.

 

Maslow would probably have understood.

 

📍 ‘Although he never had to configure a 911.’