What’s so lifestyle about automobiles anyway?

Can you imagine Mr. Bean in a Hummer? Or Arnie jumping off a bridge in The Terminator astride a…wait for it…Vespa? In either case, the ludicrousness of the picture the mind is painting for you at my words is probably making you smile, if not laugh. Now just stop for a second and ask yourself, why. It is just not them, is it? And that pretty much sums up one of the most obvious, yet frequently ignored aspect, of the vehicle purchasing process. The question of lifestyle, and how it impacts purchase decisions. A couple of decades ago, as a student in Pune I was quick to realize the need for personal transportation. So, when dad came visiting, I impressed upon him, using some fairly dubious means, that I needed a motorcycle. Imagine my dismay when the old man gave me the exact Pune on-road price of a TVS Scooty! I simply couldn’t imagine it as something I’d want to own. Cut a long story short, I ended up buying a used 1983, Enfield Bullet. Yet, I had no problems imagining it as a part of my life. My flat mate, on the other hand, spent a similar amount of money and ended up with