As shallow as it may seem, if your truck makes you feel good about yourself, it's hard to put a price on that, since generally speaking the better you feel about yourself the better person you are to others and you'll tend to be better at what you do. That's not to say you need a spiffy truck to feel good about yourself. Some people take great pride in being frugal. There ya go.
You raise a good point about self esteem as it relates to show trucks. Goodness knows the world is full of people who live life from the outside in and load themselves up with all sorts of material goods in the quest for happiness. Show truck owners are no different, I presume. My guess is that a number of them (not all) seek out and thrive on the recognition a show truck can bring.
Diane and I own a show truck but for different reasons. If status and prestige were important to us, we would not have left our white-collar professions to become truck drivers. I had my fifteen minutes of fame (see
my bio) and learned from it that I don't want or need 15 more.
We have never knowingly entered our truck in a show and don't expect we ever will. (We once parked it where requested when we attended a truck show, but did not know it was in competition until someone handed us a winner's ribbon when the show ended. Had we known the truck was in a contest, we would have parked it someplace else.)
We did not build our truck so other people would notice and appreciate us. We built our truck so we would notice and appreciate it.
We ran three years in fleet owner trucks (Class 8 D and DR-units with factory sleepers and no special features). While we succeeded in that game, we wanted more. We wanted the freedom that comes with not having a fleet owner in your life. We wanted to make more money and be more comfortable and secure on the road than we could in fleet owner trucks; thus our truck.
The custom truck we built has been fantastic for us. If we had it to do over again, we would build the exact same truck (except some very minor modifications). The floor plan is perfect. The working parts of the truck have served our business well. It drives like a dream.
The truck has paid for itself.
The truck has paid for its expenses.
The truck has paid for our health insurance, gifts to others, gifts to ourselves and ongoing living expenses.
The truck has paid for our retirement plan contributions.
The truck has paid for our Florida vacation home.
The truck has paid for my
trading grubstake.
The truck has paid for the progress we have made toward our
long-term financial goals.
The truck is paying for its replacement.
The reason our truck has done so much is because we did not focus only on the costs of owning a truck. We also focused on the revenue this particular kind of truck can generate.
It does not matter what kind of van or truck someone owns. It won't produce a dime if no one drives it. We designed a truck that perfectly meets the needs and desires of its drivers, and thereby enhances our productivity.
