i too had a honda before my lexus. and yes i feel akward when people see what i drive. especially since i am 18 and still in school, they think that i am spoiled by my parents, which im not, the car was bought (paying for) by me. All under my name. And they think im lying because the GS400 looks newer than it is and they think its worth 30k+ and that an 18 year old can't afford it.

But then again. i like to judge people, even tho i shouldn't, on what they drive. it lets me know what kind of person im talking to. For example i rather talk to someone who drives a Lexus as apposed to someone who drives a Geo.

Why? because i feel that the person with the lexus is more intelligent (they must have gone to college or something) and i always seek advice from people more successful than me. That doesn't mean that the person in the Geo didnt go to college, it just means that "hey, if i dont care what i drive, than why should anything else i say/do be important."


this is a bad way to judge people. i know...

 

I may avoid going to certain professional meetings because I dont want other members to envy the fact that I do a little better than they do. I am not into inciting envy in people.

 

yeah i feel that all the time when i'm at work, especially I drive one of the nicest cars at work, and my boss's car is a 92 honda. I can never tell anyone what i drive because of all the gossip it will start. so when people ask me what i drive, i just say a small sedan. however, outside of work life, i'm all about cars, cause i love cars, Lexus to be exact!!

 

Well where I work. The salesman we used to drove a Audi, Acura and a Land Rover. They were all entry level luxury cars. Well last Friday we announced layoffs and the first to go where the salesman.

As for us managers. Hyundai, Camrys, Toyota, Nissan all dominate the lot. My district manager drives a Jeep Patriot and our director drives a Acura MDX One manager just bought a poser M3 BMW...although used.

 

I can't be worried about it.

 

Let me put this one on you guys.... I deliver food as a part time job while going to school. My car has almost 100k and is 12 years old yet it's very, very clean. Those badges kill my tips overall, yet I would say 70% of people have no idea about cars so it makes little difference. They don't care to even notice what i'm driving. That other 30 or so percent however are ****** about it. I've had people accuse me of being a drug dealer more then once and go so far as to get legitimately offended that i'm driving a lexus. Snide comments like "how does the pizza guy push a lex" are a weekly occurance. Co workers are no better believe me lol.
Now, I just try to hide it as much as possible while I'm working, it's a pain keeping it out of sight. Being in my early 20's makes it even worse. I drive a modest used car, its worth maybe, maybe 7g's yet people are so ignorant. A co-worker with a 07' certified Chevy Trailblazer worth 14g's never catches any flak. Why must people be so stupid just cause i like a little comfort and refinement?

 

i never know what to tell people when they ask me "what kinda car do you drive"

very hard question to answer.
1) if i say lexus, they think im some spoiled brat
2) if i say oh, a sedan, then they think i drive a POS (cant have that either )

 

Why do people make the connection of Lexus and drug dealer, or Lexus and old person, i don't understand

 

I never really try to "hide" the fact unless I am in a situation where I might get labled as spoiled. To me a car is a car, as long as you have something to drive you've done well.

 

It was pretty hard to "Hide" the yellow IS300 that I owned and drove (the car I owned when I joined CL). It stood out like a sore thumb....identical to this one except for six-spoke, 16" wheels.

 

Since getting the Rover over Christmas, there's really no being subtle about my cars. Rover is a tank, no two ways about it, & if I brought the Rover to, well, anything, I'm pretty sure every one knows I'm there.

The Lexus has the "Lexus" back on the trunk (I felt the trunk needed something).

I've come to the conclusion that if people want to be offended or put out by any of my cars they can go right ahead; I/we didn't buy my/our cars for them. I find it's the same people that have comments on my shoes &/or jackets ... what ever.

 

i don't care what i drive really.

the nicer the car the better, I suppose

 

I have worked at the same job for almost 20 years now at a rental company and when I got my SC430 some of our customers said Dave (my boss and owner of the company) must be paying you too much. I tell em if Dave was paying me too much I would have a brand new car and not a 2005 car. Then they are surprised to find out my car is not brand new because it looks brand new.
I am in my early 40s and have worked my *** off working about 60 hours a week during the spring,summer and fall to get where I am these days having just bought my first house a couple years ago. I just bought my SC 430 a few months ago and I am proud to be able to drive a car like this and I don't care what other people think of me.
I am definitly not a "judge a book by it's cover" type person.
I am not your "usual" Lexus owner as I am a very casual dressed type person. When I was looking for a car I walked into the Lexus dealership in shorts and a tee shirt and walked around for quite a while with no salesmen bothering me because they probably thought I was some poor bastard dreaming LOL. Then I walked into the showroom and saw my SC 430 sitting there with the top down and sat there walking around the car for probably 15-20 minutes. I had to actually ask to talk to a saleman about my car because none could be bothered to come up to me to ask if they could help me. Then they tried to talk me into buying a lower priced used AWD sedan. So I took it for a test drive and when we got back to the showroom I asked to take the SC 430 for a test drive. They were not happy because they had to move 8-10 other cars to get my car out of the showroom. Then their whole attitude changed when they started to check out my credit report and job history they turned much more friendly and the rest is history.

 

A sad mistake really...if he had say a late model Mercedes as a daily he would had probably surived that crash.

 

When I was younger (20) and had my GS400 I used to tell people I drove a Toyota, which wasn't a lie, really... but it just avoided that strange judgmental moment that followed me saying I had a Lexus.

These days at the age of 26 it's less strange for me to say I have a BMW, but I will still just try not and mention it unless I've been specifically asked what I drive and it's by a person who is interested in cars and not just asking to be nosy.