For me, I don't think about whether or not my car is a financial asset. It's my car. We got it right when we really couldn't afford it, but I had a Rav4 in pristine condition that I'd gotten from a top notch dealer. After having it for three months, the transmission started dying (the car was six years old). We had to spend $5K on a brand new transmission, or trade up. So we got a really good trade in on it (traded to a dealer who said there was nothing wrong with it) and it cost us the $5K extra to get the Ford Territory. We rolled the loan over and the loan is less than the value of the Ford. I'm not worried about the depreciating value of the Ford, because I have no interest in selling it. We'll pay off the loan early (we're already in advanced payments), it's big enough for our family and dogs, and also strong enough to tow our camper. So to me, that car is worth a million dollars.

DH's van, however....the one we bought outright.....went into the mechanics yesterday after not being serviced for 59,000kms, was serviced and tuned and sorted out, was running fine before the service and today it broke down. We're hoping to upgrade it sometime next year, and we will be buying second hand and getting a loan.