[mmt]

> And you can stop pretty much anywhere en route

This is speculative and doesn't affect the emotional purchase decision today.

> Plenty of flexibility there.

Perhaps by some objective measure, but, again, that ignores the emotional component.

> but they're getting close already when you consider lifetime costs including fuel and maintenance

That's as may be, but lifetime costs are irrelevant if the barrier to entry (practical or emotional) is too high in the form of purchase cost.

It's not even necessarily irrational to decide to pay what appears to be a higher lifetime cost if ones personal "interest" rate in the TVM calculation exceeds the standard/average one, due to a high opportunity cost or just a high borrowing cost.