[Grishbok]

In all honesty,

The human brain is plagued by two combating factors, ethos, and thanatos. When you associate to something outside yourself like a car, those two driving factors do not come into play, however, when dealing with yourself, they are most prevailant.

Ethos can be summarized as your innate desire to do good, and thanatos, the innate desire to do harm. It is these combating factors which are at play for those who decide to smoke and those that dont. We all know its bad for us, and yet people choose to smoke regardless. That would be thanatos being more dominant in that situation.

When you outwardly look to a car, these subjective factors arent in play. You view the car as an object, as a representation of a component of you that wants to be displayed for others. By taking extravagant care of it, you are essentially polishing a trophy. It is a symbol, to be viewed by others. This is at the core of automotive sales philosophy as well.

Another reason, is nurture. The desire to take care of posessions visible by society/others is a nurtured one. We are taught, trained, and influenced through various marketing techniques and societal influences all steering us toward what the ideal perception of us as individuals should be. Subconsciously, this is in effect in how you feel if you were to judge a person you have never seen, based soley on his car. Lets put two cars in front of you, one is super clean, polished, detailed, dressed, and the other; the same car, but dirty with grungy pale windows and blackened wheels from debris and soot. You would "feel" that the owner of the clean car would be more socially apt, reliable, responsible, and overall have a generally better opinion about him, than you would the owner of the dirty counterpart.

To sum it up, when you wonder why you take better care of your car than you do yourself, its because subconsciously, you care more about how people perceive your possesions than any aspect of yourself. Thank you society.