An additional point is that more money allows you to take more risk. At some income, when you buy a commuting car, you'll want something that can get you to wor

An additional point is that more money allows you to take more risk. At some income, when you buy a commuting car, you'll want something that can get you to work. You don't need to worry as much about how dependable the manufacturer/model is, because you have the resources to take it to a mechanic as soon as problems appear. You could just buy it with the help of regular advertising (mpg, features, etc) instead of doing further research into common issues with $MODEL (whether not doing this is responsible or not... that's another issue). Whereas someone with a much lower income might be scouring craigslist and forums for hours each night trying to find a beater to replace their car that's experiencing death by a thousand cuts.