Cars Are For Transportation, NOT Decoration!

I love my family, but they will tell you themselves that they are "really good Christians."
I'm not sure exactly how to explain why I think this is so problematic, even among people who aren't hypocrites or judgmental at all (and hypocrites never really KNOW that they're hypocrites, do they?). But I think it comes down to this: If it's just that "easy" to be a good person, then where's the humility, the awareness that you're not perfect? Not just lip service to the idea that you're not perfect, but actually seeing and acknowledging your flaws and mistakes, and trying to do better? If you think you're already on top of the mountain, then you're going to get lazy.
I'm not trying to guilt anyone, and I hate when pastors and others try to do that, but I wanted to point out that just because you go through the bible studies and programs at your church, or even just because you read the bible, doesn't mean that you got your life together. Or that you're making the right decisions for you--or your money, for that matter.
I once observed that it seems to me that, the more conservative the church, the more expensive the cars in the parking lot become!
Except for my mom, who shares my automotive values, one couple who share a brand-new car, and my younger cousins, who are just starting out in life and can only afford used cars (though I have a feeling that my cousin Red might be thrifty like me), every single person in my mother's family, other than me, has a car or truck that they bought new. Every. Single. Person. Most are on their second or third new vehicle, or looking for the next one.
That is insanity!
A car has one, and only one, purpose: To get you, your passengers, and your stuff from here to there, from there to here, safely and reliably. There is no way that a car can provide $12,000 or more worth of happiness; there's no way that that money could not be spent in more meaningful and fun ways!
(I'm not even talking about their new vehicle purchases, and I'm using a purposefully "low" figure; they tend to buy the upper-middle level of new car, in terms of price and "status." I would estimate about $35,000 or more is not uncommon, just judging from what these cars go for typically.)
A car is a tool, nothing more. You can feel good for MUCH less than $35,000 or more.

This is why I never want to go to an affluent church, if I were to attend church, because my old car sitting next to their new cars would just drive home the huge differences in personal values and lifestyle.
(My car is a hand-me-down from my mom, when she got her twenty-year-old van. She was so thrilled about that van, and still is, and she loved that car, too, for many years. It has history, that way, which is why I love it so much!)

I believe that the reason my family is so obsessed with new, shiny cars, is because of the church most of them attend. It is rather affluent, and has many of the important people in the community (or rather, people who think they're important in the community). My family fellowships "up," as far as wealth and so-called status, not across or even down. I don't fellowship with anyone, myself, but I certainly would never fellowship "up." (Though if the affirming churches recommended by my gay Christian friends had evening services, I might try them out, if they weren't too religious. Or too affluent--I don't approve of that lifestyle!)

When one person in the family got a new car, everyone else had to catch up, and did so within a year or two. They left my mother and me in the dust.

But our extended family is not that affluent. We can't afford to pay cash for these things, and if we did, it would be our life savings, or at least a very good part of it.

It makes me sick, how much money Americans waste. I am pretty silent and polite when being shown a relative's new car, or am told that they are looking for one, because I actually lose respect for people who have newer cars; I don't gain it. I especially lose respect for people who are wealthy enough to actually afford them; even if it's "small," compared to what you have, it's still a HUGE waste of money and resources! How many people could have been helped, with that money? How much garbage could be cleaned up from the oceans, with that money?

Luxury car companies should not even exist. I am not for only one option of car (like a communist), or saying that no new cars should be made, but I believe a price cap on cars would certainly help make them more practical, even if it's $100,000. Let the rich make their own customized improvements after purchasing, if they must be "better" than others, somehow.

At the very least, if one wants to have a "luxury" car, a vintage car would be much easier to maintain and replace parts in, and would keep its value, maybe even become more valuable over time. It might even be much cheaper than a new or late-model car. And you wouldn't be manipulated by the car companies and the culture to believe that a want is actually a need. Or manipulated by your church to think that something inducing that much debt is a "blessing." (My mom recalls that even at her old church--a relatively non-affluent one--when my parents were borrowing my paternal grandmother's car, which was relatively new at the time, everyone gathered around them in the parking lot and said, "Congratulations!" as if they had just a baby other than me!)

I believe frugality is a virtue, an all-too-rare virtue, nowadays. And I also believe that if you need a brand-new upper-middle level car to feel good, then you actually need to get therapy and self-help books, and pocket the difference. You would actually be able to afford a much more luxurious lifestyle, that way, or at least be free of a whole lot of debt.