Fun poll. We would gladly pay more for a higher end vehicle if we liked it and it had reliability and reasonable cost of ownership.
We own cars for 10+ years. Based on past history (2006 325i) and some research, we ruled out German cars. Great driving vehicles, but built for the 3 to 5 year lease market. This may have changed in 10 years, but I didn't want to spend more time arguing with BMW and the dealership over failures due to terrible engineering ($1000 turn signal replacements, broken head bolts, etc.). So we looked at products from Japan and I liked the Subaru Forrester. Still do, but my spouse instantly liked the CX 5 for it's driving feel. And so did I.
The higher end Japanese offerings didn't offer much more for the additional cost and the CX 5 is now our everyday vehicle.
For us it's about "utility" - the best return on your money. What we don't spend on the car we can spend elsewhere.
We own cars for 10+ years. Based on past history (2006 325i) and some research, we ruled out German cars. Great driving vehicles, but built for the 3 to 5 year lease market. This may have changed in 10 years, but I didn't want to spend more time arguing with BMW and the dealership over failures due to terrible engineering ($1000 turn signal replacements, broken head bolts, etc.). So we looked at products from Japan and I liked the Subaru Forrester. Still do, but my spouse instantly liked the CX 5 for it's driving feel. And so did I.
The higher end Japanese offerings didn't offer much more for the additional cost and the CX 5 is now our everyday vehicle.
For us it's about "utility" - the best return on your money. What we don't spend on the car we can spend elsewhere.