I have paid cash for new cars for decades. I usually keep a car for about 100K miles (3-4 years) and then trade it in and then pay cash for the difference.
We live within our means. We keep our debt down.
We live in a small ranch. We don’t have cable tv. I have a four year old cell phone and my wife has a trac phone. We don’t buy top of the line cars. We paid extra each month on our mortgage to get it paid off in half the time. (only $100 a month extra did it)
You look at some people who have to always have new furniture, new kitchen, top of the line cell phones for everyone in the family, top of the line cars, etc. They buy a great big house, really reaching financially to get it, in the right town, school district, etc.
But that all comes with a price. As Milton Friedman once said “All debts are paid”, if not by you, by someone else, but they get paid.
Heck, it wasn’t always such. I remember taking out a five year, $50 a month loan to buy a used car. And I was having occasional trouble making that payment.
Then the car died. The engine blew. I didn’t have the money for a new engine (It was a POS 1983 Ford Escort) so I bought a beater, and called a junkyard that offered to pay $250 for any car. When I told the guy it was an Escort, the guy laughed and said “We won’t pay for those. Those are throwaway cars!”
I don’t miss those days.