<prompt> Human: The question grew in my head recently and, unless the answer is strong influence by car dealers to make us think its alright, I have no clues.Keep in mind, Im not here to judge anyone, as I borrowed last year to buy a new car.With cars being available at any pricepoint from 500 beaters to 100k GT-R, there is no valid reason to put yourself into a 20k debt to have a new car. Sure, used ones have a greater chance of breaking , but the repairs costs are, in general, always less than the cost of a lease insurance. Youre always buying peace of mind with a new car.The laptop, however, might be more important for a CADCSVideo processing student. Chances are he has little to no spare money to put on the powerhouse he needs. Still, borrowing for a laptop is often deemed as overspending, because it is not an essential tool for day to day for most people, while a car is.What is your opinion rpersonnalfinance ? Is it just me, or is it a common misconception of the society fueled by car dealers as an incentive to buy new cars ?  <response>: I think that is because many people deem cars a necessity and computers something that you purchase for fun. I think a good point is that it is generational, if someone says Play on the computer it means they think a computer is a toy, or mentally equate it to a toy. Toys are never necessary.Those same people would probably look down on you financing a snowmobile, 4-wheeler, or boat too and they also find it hard to equate computer job for people that use a computer for more than just word processing or playing Pussy Poker on the GSN website Im looking at you Grandma. 