A physician friend sent me this medscape article this morning with the bi-line: “doctors are boring” (with the exception of number 11).
What Doctors Drive
Curious what other docs drive? It’s not all luxury SUVs and red sports cars. Turns out, physicians are more sensible car consumers.
www.medscape.com
I think there is a common misconception that physicians are rolling in cash and can buy whatever they like, whenever they want.
In truth most doctors wisely choose frugality over fancy.
Most physicians leave med school with significant debt, with 28% of them owing more than $300k. This is after sacrificing anywhere from 12-16 years of their lives through postgraduate training, working for peanuts in those first few years of residency.
My wife and I were frugal in our first years (living at my parents home in Torrance during med school and residency training and saving our dollars for eliminating debt and our first home).
My first car, a 1981 Honda civic 1500 dx was purchaed for $1500 cash, saved up after working for two years in a biology lab at UCLA washing glassware.
Since then with years of hard work and smart real estate picks, the homes became more stately and the vehicles fancier and purchased with meaningful motoring in mind.
The first two exciting adds were a black 1992 Mazda Miata, and once the babies arrived a preowned 1992 Toyota Landcruiser. My love for Landcrusiers was thereafter reinforced in my time driving them overseas, in regions of conflict and natural disaster.
The passion for convertibles / sports cars and high clearance landcruisers continued for 40 years after that Honda civic. (Now replaced by Porsches and a 2026 Lexus GX 550 OT+).
The vehicles have evolved but the joy and passion of motoring has continued.
I will however attest - no car brought me as much happiness as that 1981 Honda 1500 dx, with its burned out clutch, in which i taught myself how to drive a manual. It’s a testament that being happy is more about passion and less about pocketbook.
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