I've never cared about cars, per se, although I've had some nice ones. But they were all bought for some type of practical purpose (the 82 Volvo 240 wagon , because all "moms" had one, a Mazda mini van with AWD, so I could get up the hill and take my kids and their friends places), except for for my current car, a 2003 BMW 325xi.
I bought it because the promotional literature/brochure featured the Milan-San Remo bike race in the background, on all of the pages.