Look at it this way: conspicuous displays of wealth are very cheap signals for the rational members of the human race to pick out what we call, in technical sociological language, "wankers".

Indeed, nice cars say to me: "there's a moron who lacks taste/perspective, and probably is really bad at managing their life and money. They probably have large amounts of debt and leverage.".

You can call me judgmental, but its an infinitely better attitude to take than anything approaching admiration/jealousy.

Yeah the guy in a 1982 Volvo spewing black smoke and rusting to pieces is obviously more financially savvy and responsible than someone driving a BMW.

Luckily for his point there are the other hundreds of millions of reliable cars on the spectrum between a broken one and a premium one!

Depends on the intrinsic value of a flashy car, or what you think flashy is I guess.

A car with air con is clearly better than one without in many countries for example.

Same with business class - clearly having a bed to sleep in on a 10 hour flight is better than sitting up, how much better depends how much you value your sleep.

A Porsche 911 is in almost every sense a less practical car than a Toyota Corolla.

That is true. I suppose that is why the 911 is in the sports car category.

I disagree. I think BMW, at least, offer more than showing off for driving. Safety and comfort.

Also if I'm flying 12h, I'd really enjoy the business class. The reason I don't pay for it now is because, well, eh, it is expensive and I'm still young. But I can't imagine 10 years down the line flying economic class for work/tourism on a 10 hours flight. It's too much torture to be worth it.