I think most people don't really like 'things', they like art (more often TV, movies, and music then theatre, painting, or sculpture, but it's all art), sports, social interaction. Not to say that car enthusiasts don't (obviously the people here like movies as well), but we are at least partially more object centered (falling under the same umbrella as model railway builders, aviations enthusiasts, firearms enthusiasts, boat people, collectors of any sort). As I see it, a lot of the time when mainstream socity seems to be materialistic, what they're actually focused on is social standing. It doesn't actually matter to them if the object is actually good, it's the preception and connotations. Like... A Jaguar X-type. A car enthusiast will look at it and see a tarted-up Mondeo (it's just an example, your views on X-Types and Mondeos may vary), but to the 'materialistic' person that bought it, that doesn't matter. What matters is that it's a Jaguar and it shows (in their opinion) that they're reasonably well off and have sophisticated taste.
I don't know why people are like that. Some cavemen hunted leopards because they had nice warm pelts, some cavemen hunted leopards because it made them look bad ass.
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Sometimes I feel like I know quite a lot about cars. None of my friends know very much, so I seem encyclopedic by comparison. I have certain areas of expertise, of course, but generally if it was made by a major manufacturer between 1965 and today, and sold in North America, I can tell you at least a little bit about it. But, it seems like some people can do this sort of analysis-

-with any car. It boggles the mind. I can pretty much only do that sort of breakdown with MkII Supras, and they're really easy.