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One thing I feel like we discuss rarely here is cars.
I drive a late 90s/early 00s German sedan. When I made less money, I spent a good amount of time wrenching on it. I wanted to have some minimal competence and understanding of the car, and it was a great way to save money.
It still would be a great way to save money - I won't kid myself there - but the stress of preparing for a maintenance job, buying the specialized tools/parts, and working in my extremely cramped garage has lost some magic. I still feel accomplished doing little things but when I'm constantly under pressure to be doing work or parenting, there's less magic in DIY. Bike maintenance provides a similar dopamine hit with far less commitment.
That said, I just picked it up from the mechanic this week after a month-long absence and some significant work being done. I truly do not understand how people put up with newer cars.
This thing is absolutely sublime. It strikes a perfect balance between the precision and feedback from all of its systems while driving and what you'd define as "luxury" and comfort. I splurged on an aftermarket exhaust that fades into the background on the highway and absolutely rips when I'm driving like I stole it late at night on more empty roads.
Not to mention how it looks. Of course, any car you see as a teenager is what you base everything else on, but the slightly angular design language of this period right before everything turned into aero blobs for fuel efficiency and crash standards just really gets me going. I absolutely still look back at it when walking into the office and find myself getting excited when I step back into it after a long day.
Whenever I'm on the road watching hundreds of drones driving dirty shitboxes without using their turn signals or trying to drive efficiently, I fall into such a superiority complex. How could you care so little about something you do so much? For a country supposedly in love with its cars, it would be tough for Americans to give less of a shit about how driving feels and how they perform at it. For all I'm made fun of about the time and money I've invested in an older car, when I spread that out over the time I've used it and the joy I derive from it it seems like an obvious trade.
I greatly understand interior comfort and somewhat understand the pride of owning an aesthetic car, but paying to make the car sound better is a completely foreign concept to me. Why would I care what the car sounds like, as long as it isn’t an annoying sound?
There's already a response below suggesting what is admittedly the most common reason for a new exhaust - crappy ricer subculture signaling. There's more to it than that:
My car's engine is considered one of the best ever made, but the default mufflers make it inaudible. Some people simply cut the mufflers off to overwhelm the generous soundproofing of the car, but I spent some extra money on a dedicated replacement with still-strong mufflers. I can control how much sound it makes by how I drive, because when I'm cruising on the highway or slinking out in the morning there's no need for it.
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It’s about signaling to a specific subculture organized around cars in a specific way. Be it the rice burner subculture, the hot rodding subculture, whatever.
Frequently you can tell these guys because they have their Instagram handles on their car windows; having their cars modified in a certain way is high status in that subculture, and so they advertise its association with them, personally.
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