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Whilst I'm normally the first to back a pile-on of rich people, I don't think it's quite that simple.
I too live in an area where many of the houses are expensive, but it's in South-East London, and most of the people with the big houses run relatively modest cars.
A couple of my best mates are hedge-fund traders and make unbelievable amounts of money, but again, don't driver particularly flashy cars. Most of the hedge-fund traders I have met tend to be a bit weird - they look for the value in everything, which is why they all shop at Lidl.
Through work I occasionally come into contact with the mega rich. A couple of years ago I had a meeting with the wife of one of the richest men in the country - she turned up in an old Nissan Micra, held together with gaffer tape.
By contrast, my office used to be in Whitechapel, just off the Mile End Road, an area of grinding poverty, but you just couldn't move for high-end Beemers and Range Rovers.
In short, rich people are twats, but they're not necessarily the problem.
Jingle_Jangle-
A couple of my best mates are hedge-fund traders and make unbelievable amounts of money, but again, don't driver particularly flashy cars. Most of the hedge-fund traders I have met tend to be a bit weird - they look for the value in everything, which is why they all shop at Lidl.
My anecdata is in contrast with yours then.
The road next to me is mostly £4m+ houses, replete with a couple of hedge fund managers and corporate lawyers. It's mostly huge Volvos, Range Rovers or the Tesla that's bigger than a Volvo estate. If they have a normal/ratty car (as well) it's because it's for one of the children or the staff.
(I too live in a big detached house, but one that has been cut up into flats.)
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Real middle/upper class people apply bangernomics.
It's just a bit gauche to drive around in something flashy.
Greenbank
Fox
(Note that I edited my post to say £2m+)
Countrywide yes, but at a more local level SUV ownership is highest in places where the average house sale price is already >£2m, e.g. parts of Wandsworth borough, Kensington & Chelsea, and Hammersmith & Fulham.
In part of my local area there's probably 95% of the 1000 houses nearby me that would sell for more then £2m. It isn't accurately reflected in average house sale prices (available via the Land Registry) as many are owned by boomers who bought them for £25k 40 years ago.
Indeed, and the measures I suggested would have an effect on them as though couldn't finance a tripling in running costs. But in certain areas of the country where the SUV is so dominant there'd be little to no point trying to put the squeeze on them at all (with those measures).
At the end of my road is a school where the daughter of a Russian oligarch used to attend. As the story goes, to make the drop-off/pick-up easier (after complaints from locals about the two vehicles that used to idle whilst waiting for her) said oligarch bought one of the houses next to the school purely to use the driveway for drop-off and pick-up. The £2m+ house was just left empty and then sold (for a profit naturally) when she'd moved on from the school.