The Entitled

  So I meet guys from time to time that talk about cars.  It's nice because it's one of my several hobbies.  Cars can be an expensive hobby.  A mechanically inclined can limit those costs to reasonable levels.  One at least gear-savvy can estimate repairs based on symptoms and not get railroaded by mechanics for a more realistic estimate of repairs.  An alternator replacement shouldn't cost $300 for instance (under most circumstances, anyway).  As my dad would say, "Ignorance is expensive."  Though I prefer my own, "Ignorance is laziness."
  A percentage of these folks buy hoplessly beat-up cars that'll never run as they wallow in its failure.  Either lack of funds or gumption keep the car from its greatness, like some senile elderly person on life-support in a coma-state until Mother Entropy takes over inexorably over time until all hope turns to rust.  Sometimes these folks can get a car to almost running sort of, if in short stints after spending thousands.  These people have had the car wraith their souls into the metal beast until they're sad spectres, realizing their journey was a financial nightmare and an impossible one, albiet noble.
   What bothers me more are the type that have a true love of cars but are too afraid to own a particular speciality.  A person I know at work raves about a Lotus Exige, particularly after 2005 when they were supercharged.  This guy owns a 3-Series BMW from 2007.  I informed him that his trade-in of $16k would well afford him an Exige that'd run around $39k for the same year in used but fine condition.  He lamented a car payment (of $22k over 6 years) and that he's happy he doesn't have a car payment right now.  More debate indicated he'd rather buy a new 5-Series BMW.  This would be fine but he has been drooling over the Exige for the two years I've known him, yet he holds himself back for seemingly no reason, the car in-sight easily, especially if he's looking at buying a one or two year old 5-Series BMW!  Those'd run around $50k give-or-take, depending on options, which could take you into the $70k range, especially if he's thinking about a 2011 model M Edition.  It's so insane he'd rather get a sedan instead of his dream car, as if he's almost denying himself happiness.
  Another such instance was a kid I knew who said there was nothing he'd want more than a 1990s Corvette (for whatever reason) but that he could never aford one.  He had a 2002 Dodge Ram paid-off and I showed him several late 90s LS1 Corvettes for around $8000 (at the time).  His Ram he could get around $22k.  He still balked at the idea and just kept on dreaming.  What the heck is wrong here?  A quirk in humanity.

  On a side note I was filling air in my tires with the supplied Saturn Sky handy 12V cigarette-lighter adapter that it comes with (thanks Saturn) as the pressure was low and it's about-free (versus a gas station'd charge a dollar or two) and I accidentilly inserted a secondary