I've driven the same puke green 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage since I was 17 years old. It was my first major purchase ($1100) and it has been the best car I could ever hope for. I've kept up on maintenance and so far it's never failed me. Not having a car payment and having it be so reliable has saved me from homelessness more than once. It's absolutely hideous and covered in dent and hail damage spots, but I love it and definitely can't afford better.
My former employer (small medical practice with 2 docs and 4 staff) thought my clunker car was hilarious. On my second or third day he walked in and said “I just parked next to the ugliest car I've ever seen, a nasty green old wreck.” I informed him that was my nasty green old wreck (which I resent because I go to a lot of effort to keep my car clean) and he laughed and said “You really ought to get yourself a new car. It's not a good look for our business to have that thing in our parking lot.”
The kicker is that this man was paying me (office manager) $12 an hour with no benefits.
I brushed off the comments initially but he continued to make jokes about how he's shocked my car made it up the hill, that it didn't backfire when I started it, that it was the ugliest car he'd ever seen, etc. He'd even point it out to patients. On top of everything else, he would make it a point to park his shiny black Camaro next to my car just to highlight the difference. I don't understand why he made such a big deal of it. It wasn't like I drove a Model T.
Finally I had enough after he made a joke about my car looking like a “welfare mom car” after I installed a car seat for my toddler. I told him he barely paid me enough to afford rent, much less a new car, and that he should be grateful that I have a reliable way to get to work every day. This was in front of a patient my boss had just brought up.
He didn't say anything at first but later he pulled me aside to tell me it was “unprofessional” for me to bring up my pay in front of the patient. I countered that it was inappropriate for him to mock my car in front of the patient anyway. We argued for a while before he finally just rolled his eyes and said “Your inability to budget your paychecks properly isn't my fault. What I pay you should more than cover your bills and a car payment for a decent-looking car.”
That did it for me. My rent was $1200 for a 750 Sq ft apartment, I had a kid and a husband in school, I was literally fretting that day about how my toddler had already outgrown the clothes I bought for her 2 months prior and needed to get her more. My car was the sole bit of financial peace I had at that time.
I started to interview for other jobs and found a similar role at a competing office for almost double the pay, plus benefits. My boss was shocked when I handed in my resignation and countered with a 3 dollar raise. How generous. Fuck him. I wish I could have gotten away with keying his stupid Camaro.