New car snob effect (& how much it costs you)
This is where price and perception strap on their Wonderbra to convince you that the product is far more desirable than it actually is. Is it costing you thousands?
In 25 years of testing cars and reporting about them and the industry that makes them, I think I’ve divorced myself from the snob effect. I remember how profound it once was.
First time I drove a Porsche; a Ferrari, AMG-this, M-performance that. I was gagging for it. Here’s the thing - it was ‘sex with a supermodel’ syndrome, every time.
The RAA of that is: the idea of sex with a supermodel is better than the actual sex with the supermodel. It’s not that sex with a supermodel is bad. (I’m inferring - supermodels who’d like to assist with this experiment, form an orderly queue.) The problem is that you expect it to be twice as good as the reality.
This is exactly what it’s like to drive one of these cars that mortals will never be able to afford. Reviewers gush - but that’s the reality. The expectation is better than the delivery. It’s good; it’s just not as good as you wanted it to be.
Premium carmakers latch onto that fantasy. They embody the fantasy into the badge and then they build cheap, comparatively nasty cars that mortals can afford, and they use snob factor to obscure the fact that the objective truth of these vehicles is far less than the underlying fantasy of the brand.
And by ‘fantasy’ I mean all the intangible factors wrapped up in the car. The idea that it is manifestly superior to a mainstream car. The status upgrade you perceive as a consequence of owning it. What you presume other people will think of you when they see you emerge from that car. Stuff like that: all the epistemic baggage.
See also:
Here’s an example. Mercedes-Benz - and I’m using them because they’re the most accessible most aspirational brand - I mean, there’s no ‘budget’ Ferrari, but you can buy a budget Benz for about the same price as a Mazda3, and people think it’s gunna be better.
Mercedes-Benz recently released the new A-Class - gay pride flagship. The little ‘out of the closet’ engine that could. The ‘Gay200’ 1.3 turbo: I can’t think of a car less aligned with truly aspirational Benzes like the SLS or anything else ‘AMG’. I really can’t.
Let’s leave the badges and the snob effect at the door and compare the Gay-Class to a Hyundai i30 SR Premium. And I know what you’re thinking: Nobody shops a Benz against a Hyundai. That’s true - and also why this is so interesting.
Read more at Strategy+Business >>
These vehicles are the same size. Actually the Gay200 is about this much bigger than the i30 SR premium. Operationally, they’re so close the difference is inconsequential.
If we, as if by magic, disengage quantum entanglement drive and pop out of a wormhole from the future and hover in the stratosphere above Shitsville today, and we teleport up a few chicks to probe, while aiming our sensors at those two cars, here’s what we’d see:
Overwhelming similarity. Same basic size, front drive, front engine, both turbo petrol fours, seven-speed DCTs. Same rubber on the road (slightly lower aspect ratio with the Hyundai).
A deep analysis demonstrates slightly more polish on the Gay200, but 17 per cent better performance from the i30, which runs on cheaper fuel, two more years warranty with the i30, and there’s a price difference. A massive one.
To make the Gay200 equivalent to an i30 on spec, you really need to add the AMG Exclusive package, which is $3200 (that gives you the dual-zone climate air, the leather and the heated/ventilated front seats, which the i30 has standard).
Plus you need the Vision Package for $2500, for the panoramic sunroof, which the i30 has standard, and the Keyless Go option for $1000 for the keyless engine stop/start that the i30 has standard.
To be fair, those packages come with some gear you can’t get on an i30 SR Premium - like front and side cameras.
Here’s how this plays out in the objective domain: It’s going to cost you $53,900 for a Gay200 that gives you the main premium features of an i30 SR Premium, and no matter how much you spend at the dealership, you’re going to get profoundly hosed by the Hyundai against all performance criteria, and the factory warranty is going to evaporate two years earlier.
The i30 is going to cost you about $20,000 less.
Up in the spaceship, from the future, I know which vehicle we would be forced by sheer weight of facts to conclude is the superior one. But we’d probably still be scratching our heads over why anyone buys the Gay Class.
