
44.000 €/year is certainly decent money but definitely not “buy a (new) BMW” money. Many years ago I got a little promotional booklet from the guys at Car Talk, a public radio show in the USA. In it their conclusion was the best value for your money is to buy a used car that’s about 3-years-old and sell it after 6 years, assuming average driving (I think around 10.000 miles/year, or around 16.000 kilometers/year). The car will lose its most value in those first 3 years and lose value more slowly after that. The flip side is the car will have increasing maintenance costs and likely lose warranty coverage in that time, and if you have to finance the car the interest rates likely will be higher than buying new.
I had a sales guy once ask me what tablet he should purchase for watching porn. He was later fired for buying groceries with his P-card.