A five year new car loan from a credit union -- no shopping around -- has a cost of something like $58 / $1000 borrowed. So even if you have $20k cash on hand to buy a new car, for a thousand bucks you can maintain an extra $20k of liquidity for expenses that are more annoying or more expensive to finance, like auto repairs.
My native country has a central database of every single loan outstanding. Lenders have to consult that before granting a loan and stay within certain limits. So at least here, an outstanding car loan might disqualify you from a home loan because of a lack of solvability...
I took his point as: Some people buy an expensive car they can ill afford when they could buy a cheaper one that will do the same job.
Like my TV example, but with a car.
(UK figures)
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachm...
In 2014, 54% of all car first registrations were made by companies.
Which is lower than I would have guessed, but still significant.
Less common in Australia because they have (had?) a domestic market to protect -- import tariffs made it less attractive.
Or at least, it's pretty common among the folks I hang with. The car-loan phenomena is baffling to me; why would you pay interest on a depreciating asset?