While I have always tried to live my life by your assumed philosophy, I think they were simply saying that since (on average) a more expensive vehicle often means a more mechanically sound vehicle less likely to break down. It’s not just the peace in being less likely to have to deal with that situation, it is the stress when it occurs. If you have to buy a $1000 car, you aren’t likely to have savings sitting around available to you to fix your vehicle when something needs replacement every month or two. Knowing that entire situation is constantly looming is just another slice of the high background stress pie. Newer (more expensive) vehicles will tend to have more wear left on operational parts, so they tend to have less mechanical breakdowns and less parts that need be replaced. Many are the breakdowns that “could” happen with any vehicle, but a lot more are just parts wearing out from age; brakes here, CVs there, gas pump one day, a battery another. They all add up quickly, especially for someone who can’t fix their own car (a single mother of two just trying to get to her jobs, for example), especially when it not only costs you money, you may not even get paid because you couldn’t make it to work and had to call out (and if you’re lucky, don’t get fired because it has happened too much). That entire situation isn’t stress that you can just casually ignore — or at least, that was my experience while being poor.