Let's Go On A Field Trip & Look At The Cars "Old Money" Drive
Come with me on a field trip to learn how generational wealth spends their money on vehicles
Hello everyone! Helen here with a fun field trip. Let’s go to a Toronto “Old Money” neighborhood and spy on their vehicle brands. Ready?
Now before you judge the exterior of these houses, keep in mind the housing market in Toronto has been wilding out for over a decade. So the few modest houses you can see in these photos are worth $3 million+.
The ones you can’t see are mansion-estates and are hidden behind wooded areas. It’s very hard to buy in this area as nothing ever comes up for sale, these houses are notoriously handed down in families: the epitome of generational wealth.
I’m not going to name this neighborhood because it’s a private enclave and these homeowners didn’t ask for my dumb ass to traipse through here filming (and judging) their cars. However, this area has its own Canadian Encyclopedia entry, which you can read here.
Before we look, what kind of cars do you think these Old Money families drive? My guess was going to be mostly old station wagons. It just felt appropriately WASPy to me. I wasn’t entirely wrong!
Exhibit A: Honda. Interesting factoid about this area: it’s a private gated community, which is UNHEARD of in midtown Toronto. There are no sidewalks and the roads are privately maintained, which means they are rough and bumpy as hell, which residents love as it discourages looky-loo Sunday drivers. Doesn’t discourage me from my snoopy walks though, lol!
Exhibit B: Ford Mustang convertible, older model. I know those stairs look busted but if you look up, that’s a historic Arts and Crafts mansion, my friends! I don’t know who owns this car but is it wrong that I want it to be an acerbic blonde Realtor in her early 70s named Sherrie? She smokes Virginia Slims and has a satanic Pomeranian named Ginger.
Exhibit C: Volvo and a Subaru. When your household income hits $200,000, you either
1. Want everyone to know and you buy a flashy BMW, or you
2. Don’t want everyone to know, and you buy a Subaru.
Exhibit D: Volvo Station Wagon and Smart ForTwo (discontinued). I am 100% willing to bet my life white people own these two cars. I’d be about 50% willing to gentlewoman’s bet that they are profs at University of Toronto because this is the nerdiest combo of cars I’ve ever seen.
Exhibit E: Toyota SUV. Don’t ask me which model, I don’t know. What I do know is that you can’t see the house this car is parked in front of because it’s huge and hidden in an urban woodland. I never envisioned myself writing “urban woodland” in regard to someone’s actual front lawn in a city with a metro population of 6.4 million, yet here we are.
Exhibit F: This is a two Subaru family and they definitely also have a cottage because they have a Thule cargo box on one of their cars. A working-class mom of a friend used to tell us “Make friends with someone whose parents own a cottage,” and damn if she wasn’t correct. All the fun, none of the hassle.
Exhibit G: Volkswagen Golf (discontinued). Rich people are definitely not like us, cause in what world would you imagine the owner of a house the size of Pemberley (look way back and you’ll see the red brick mansion) driving the ultimate boy-racer car, a red Volkswagen Golf that’s worth probably less than $8K? And that’s on Old Money, my friends.
Exhibit H: Volvo. With a roof rack. Why? Because they own a cottage. Ignore the text on the top of this photo, these are actually the captions included in the screengrabs of a little video I made on this, I’ll attach it at the bottom. Old Money Toronto families all have cottages in Muskoka. That’s just how it is.
Exhibit I: Honda. I didn’t count and there were plenty of cars I didn’t film but THESE ARE THE CARS OLD MONEY DRIVE: Hondas, Volvos and Subarus. According to this very unofficial tally, anyway.
Exhibit J: Mercedes and BMW. Neither seemed to be brand new, but FINALLY, some luxury cars. What, can’t ANYONE have a car worth more than $40K in this fancy place? I did see one Tesla too. The average car now costs $66K in Canada which you can fact-check here because that sounds ridiculous.
Exhibit K: Acura. Interesting! Someone broke out of the mold with this car. Acuras are not very popular. I feel like a balding, affable dentist named Michael owns this car. He needs to have a reliable new car that starts in the winter because he has to go to the office and drill out cavities no matter the weather. However, Dr. Michael, DDS, is fending off an impending midlife crisis so he decided to go with an upmarket niche brand instead of the Audi sportscar we know he can afford with those dentistry dollars. That just feels right to me. If you were wondering, Yes, he plays pickleball.
Ok everyone, I hope that was fun! The conclusion I drew is that these old money families drive modest cars, even beaters in some cases. It’s not the thing to show off in this enclave. Notably, the bigger the house, the older and less impressive the car! I saw more old Volvos parked here than if I drove around downtown for an hour. Go figure!
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Warmly, Helen
P.S. Here are some of my all-time favorite past posts, have a read if you missed them!