I thought more about the question in the OP. It is a good question. Why waste money on an expensive car?
As a child, I used to go through books reading about vintage automobiles – the Jaguar XKE, Mustang, Dino Ferrari, Ford GT, Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, Corvette, Aston Martin, etc. I had toy models of some of these cars. I suspect many children are interested in such things. One day these children grow up and the “toy†they wanted as a child is now within reach. So maybe they get one of these cars. Some buy a car that they dreamed about or something a bit lesser but in the same vein. Some have a second “fun car†– a vintage Mustang, Miata, or other. Some become collectors. Some people just like talking about buying one but never do.
So why does someone want to do this? I’ll give my opinion. Maybe they appreciate a thing of beauty. Maybe they like driving them - the responsiveness, acceleration, handling, or feel of the road. Maybe they like driving with the top down and the wind in their hair. There is a visceral appeal to these things. Call it inferior Se (or Se period) or whatever but there is no question that driving a Porsche is an enjoyable thing. If you drive a Honda and then drive a Porsche, It’s not really hard to understand why somebody would want the Porsche.
I personally do not buy a car very often. I get attached to my car. It becomes familiar. I rely on it to behave as I expect. In a strange way, it is a source of stability – like living in a place for a number of years – you get comfortable with it. The car I have now – I expect to put 125K - 150K miles on it. I spend a lot of time driving. If I’m going to do that, it might as well be in a car that I enjoy being in and that looks good. That’s what I figure anyway.
Do I feel like “hot shit†when I’m driving it? Sometimes, maybe I do – just a little. Sometimes, I’m a tad embarrassed. Sometimes I worry about what other people will think. There are probably as many people who will look down their nose at you as those who look up. My choice is to some degree a polarizing one which by its nature, is guaranteed to negatively impact some people’s views of me. But who cares really because I enjoy driving the car. So I’ve decided that at the end of the day, I worked for it, paid for it, and am not going to concern myself about what other people think about it. Believe it or not, these are things that I’ve given some fair amount of thought to but haven’t had a chance to jot down till now
For me, it's not so much about a fancy label. In fact, I prefer to get something that others do not have. I prefer something that is not popular. It's the reason I don't like SUVs. I would feel like a sheep buying one.
There are probably people who buy these things just for status though. Maybe they are the BMW owners.