Without marketing, people buy a Toyota that's reliable for 20 years, instead of 4 German cars.
Of course fuel-efficiency complicated matters a bit, but in an efficient economy, engines may be replace.
marketers persuaded me to spend 20% more
Exactly. There are basic needs and there are desires. I’m talking about the latter. Note that to afford that extra 20% you might need to modify your life in some way.
But perhaps instead of buying the cheap Japanese one, I bought the expensive German one. So marketers persuaded me to spend 20% more?
The idea that marketers are somehow controlling people’s lives assumes that without marketers, we’d all be living some kind of radically different lives. I doubt we would.