An automobile is a consumer item. Inevitably, it comes with a price tag of some sort. An automobile is also the culmination of one person's desires and situation and necessities and character, and who knows what all else. It is peculiarly wonderful in that way, being both a mass-market item and a totem of individuality and opinion.
As such, automobiles have provoked more arguments and debates than probably anything else for the last hundred or so years. The "Why did you get A when you could have gotten B?" format will simply never go out of style.
We all play this game, matching money to preferences. (See below at 11 AM.) And we rationalize, and we justify, and we dispute, and we feign outrage and disgust for the sake of rhetorical theater. And we love every bit of it.
And much respect is due those who do it right, like Desu-San-Desu's masterful boundary-defying parsing of the (perfectly reasonable, really) MSRP of the new Dodge Dart:
$22,485!?
For that price you could get a Hyundai Genesis with more horsepower and RWD!
Or a V6 Mustang with even more horsepower and RWD, plus the right to yell "'AMURICA!" out the window at the top of your lungs!
Or 2 used WRX's!
Or 4 used 1st-gen Miatas!
Or the ashes of Saab, including any leftover inventory!
Or 1,000 Corgi puppies!
Or 22,485 loaves of bread!
Or 4,444 packs of cigarettes!
Or 2 nights recreating 'The Hangover' in Vegas!
Or half a gallon of gas!
/GT86'd
/Andabagofchips
Photo Credit: Rex & Roseanna Baker