Sister is angry over a car

You can't argue with stupid and you can't reason with crazy.

The rest of my family are a bunch of fence sitters! Don’t like getting involved even if it means standing up for me and my pregnancy, daughter etc being ignored!

So by not challenging her, they are validating her behaviour

Ha ha! What an opportunity missed!

She could have instead hung out the most extreme and ridiculous knickers to see what happened next. 😀

I once was working as an assistant for someone just as bonkers who had the similar theories about a neighbour who was always copying her. She said she has to now dry her underwear in the garden during the night time only because her neighbour copied her style of knickers and she won’t let her see any of hers anymore. She stopped saying hello to said neighbour because of it.

What a strange thing to be upset about!!

All I can think of is that there must be either "more to it", or there's some deep-seated issues at play here.

If my sister announced she'd bought the same car as me, I'd complement her on her great choice!

How dare he buy an (overpriced) classic British vehicle! Such a copy cat.

Not.

Again. She's batshit. And your family is enjoying enabling the drama.

"... and bought one of the more reliable models."

Do JLR make any reliable cars?

"... Plenty of people see on TV / newspaper advice on buying a good reliable car and that's all your husband did"

Sorry but are you saying there is some source out there that advises that Range Rovers are good and reliable cars?

But the husband didn’t buy a ‘a good reliable car’. He bought a Range Rover. 😂

This is obviously in the UK. My analysis is that the story is all about relative status signalling. It’s part of our culture, despite how much we pretend to believe otherwise, which is also part of the culture. 🙄

Range Rovers (although we don’t in this case know which model) are mid-range to high-end cars, which whilst not usually attaining Veblen status, do have an air of ‘success in life’ about them. They are also widely known to be unreliable and expensive to maintain - it needs money not only to buy, but also to maintain and to repair these cars.

Assuming this is about status, the sister is aggrieved that she has been matched by the OP. It’s poker. The sister will probably raise next year by buying a more expensive model. I hope none of the players in this dangerous game are doing it on expensive credit: that way madness lies.

But here’s the cultural kicker: to be openly aggrieved by this plants the sister firmly in a working class category, someone who is (ridiculously) using possessions to pretend to be of a higher status than she really is. I believe the term for such people (in pre-decimalisation days 😉) was ‘two bob snobs’.

Genuinely rich people would find the perceived ‘copying’ funny, or more likely not even notice: Range Rovers? Pah! Everyone has one.

Aren’t anonymous forums fun? This could never be discussed in real life. 😄

Did she perhaps buy a 1956 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow?
And then you went out and bought one too?
if so, she may have a point.
But if, as I suspect, this was not the case then she is utterly stupid bonkers.

🤣🤣🤣 OMG really, Range Rovers are so common, they are hardly a unique car.

She didn’t see it as a compliment?
I’m staggered that because she bought the car first no one else can follow her choice…I wonder what she did if a friend or neighbour bought identical?

I was so impressed with my god father’s car I persuaded my husband to buy the same make (not model, couldn’t afford it). Forty years later we have still the same make, and my 90 year old uncle has just given up driving and offered us his latest model.

The car companies would all go bust if wee all had to follow her train of thought. Someone in the family needs to tell her to get a grip on life.

There are about half a million range rovers registered as on the road in the uk today. ( I just looked it up)
69 million people...average family of four roughly ?

Means roughly one in 34 families own a range rover.
Not that special at all.

When I was a little girl, and my little sister an even littler girl, my mother used to tell me that “imitation is the finest form of flattery” whenever I got upset that she had “coped” me.

Owning a black Range Rover is a dead giveaway that you’re a member of a (Line of Duty) organised crime gang 😂

Ffs Range Rover is such a common and sought after car, you and your husband are quite entitled to spend the money you’ve saved on exactly the car you want.

You say that you've spoken to her daughter, @Mon85 . What does she think about her mother's behaviour?

Sorry but your sister has lost the plot! Ignore her and get on with your life. She is a fool and you can’t reason with fools! Take care and enjoy your life, hope someday she realises what a fool she is.

Do you really need a batshit crazy freak like this in your life! What does she bring to the party! Nothing! I’d just let her be and concentrate on your own family.

My thought too!

Similar happened with my sister. We'd been really close all our lives but she suddenly started getting jealous, ignoring me, etc around the time our son got a grammar school place. She hadn't even entered her kids for the 11+ so it was really weird that she was bothered. She carried on being really weird for several years, making no contact, stopped buying birthday and christmas presents, never asking about us, etc., and also reducing contact with our parents too! It was only last year that we started communicating again, and now we're best buddies again - she's constantly texting and phoning me now. Funny thing is that she doesn't seem to remember blanking me for so many years. When I've mentioned things, she claims she can't remember why she didn't come to, say, our parent's 50th anniversary meal, nor why she didn't come to us scattering father's ashes - she's not making out she wasn't invited (she was!) but she just says she can't remember why she didn't come, nor why she stopped hosting New Year's day family meal, etc. It's really strange.

Even though she is your sister, you want these kind of people in your life?

Oh dear! Is she in the know? Hopefully hers isn't one of their basket-case models that's prone to engine failure, suspension and brake problems, and electrical faults (among others). Especially if DH has done his homework and bought one of the more reliable models.

Batshit crazy.

I ow the sam car as my elder sister. I bought mine after her. Zero issues.

Pity her poor husband and consider yourself well out of it.

Your family are part of the problem. They need to point out her madness to her. Their silence is perpetuating this issue. What do her DC think?

Interesting that another sibling thinks you should apologise. Could you ask her why she thinks that?

Could you ask your crazy sister why she is so upset and just listen, let her vent, ask her questions. Sometimes the act of being 'heard' is enough.

What happens at family get togethers?