When my husband and I first bought a car from a prestige brand some years back, the salesman said to us, “Your parents will be very proud.”
His remark took me by surprise, because I’ve never associated buying a car with doing my dad and mum proud. But I later understood what he was driving at – that parents would take pride in their children’s achievements, including the purchase of a luxury car at a relatively young age.
Not everyone is driven by material pursuits, and it was probably part of a sales pitch, but it worked because we suddenly felt extra-good about buying that car. The feel-good feeling might have lingered, because a few years later, we bought another car of the same brand, from the same salesman.
The second time around, though, there was less of a buzz for us. I suppose we didn’t consider it as big a deal as it was before, having already done it once, and maybe also because we have gotten accustomed to the “luxury”.
