Did I Deprive Myself By Buying A Hyundai?

One acquaintance of mine thought that by choosing an Elantra SE, I was unnecessarily depriving myself, because I could afford a nicer new car. I think I was telling him I don't really need leather seats and he called me on it.
In The Divine Comedy: Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Circle No. 4 of Hell is reserved for the Wasters and the Hoarders. So some folk think being wasteful (living in excess) is bad – a sin. I agree, but as seen in this famous literary work "hoarding" (being a miser, being impractically stingy) can also be considered a "sin."
Both my parents were great savers, compulsive almost. So I have picked up their miserly ways, but sometimes I need to rethink my actions. Am I saving just for saving's sake or do I save for a purpose? A greater purpose? I sometimes need to remind myself that saving money in itself is not necessarily a VIRTUE.

What can I do with the roughly $3000* I saved by buying an Elantra SE over a Civic EX (which is similarly equipped with a 6-speaker stereo system and 16" alloy wheels) besides hoarding it in an Orange Savings Account?
Here is one possible plan:
1. A week's vacation in Cancun ($1200)
2. Buy some stuff for the car---like the IPod Nono I already bought and a then download acouple hundred songs for it. Custom seat covers. $500
3. Get six Ayurveda stress-reduction massages to get the knots out of my shoulder. $200
4. Treat friends to a nice dinner ( $100)
5. I can donate the remaining $700 to worthy charities like IJM and World Vision.

That sounds like pretty balanced way to spend it. There could be more practical ways, more noble and more grandiose ways to spend it, too. The point is $3000 can do a lot. And I relish in the freedom that I have $3000 to spend or invest anyway I want, which otherwise could be tied up in a car. I honestly don't feel deprived.

But then again... if I had to buy the car over again, I think I would have opted for the Limited with its heated leather seats, because these cloth seats are showing dirt already. Ugh... maybe my friend was a little right.
[Based on Car's Direct Low price: Civic EX automatic: $18,661 Hyundai Elantra SE: $15,300]

Look, I got it for my car!

Buying anything big leads you to buying accessories either out of real need or out of temptation.

The first thing I bought for my car was an Ipod Nano, since my "budget econo-box" has a port for an MP3 player. Before buying the car I never seriously considered buying a Ipod -- even though ITunes has transformed my computer into my primary music player at home. Ipods are great, but I just thought they were a little overpriced.
Now I have gone ahead and bought a used one for $100 on Craig's List. Since it was formatted for Windows and I have a Mac, I am unable to load music from my Mac onto it unless I erase all the music the guy left on it. Among the 4GB of his songs, I did find a few dozen that I liked (but didn’t have) so I have postponed erasing it. So instead of listening to my music, I am listening to Snow Patrol, Kanye, and Fergie, courtesy of the previous owner. Truthfully I’m not using the Ipod much, since I have 3 months of free XM radio. Since my Ipod is being underused, I am thinking about buying some portable speakers for it, so I can listen at home or at work.

See how this buying thing sort of builds on itself.

Do I feel guilty? Should I? I figure I'm just spending a tiny bit of the thousands of dollars I saved by buying an Elantra instead of a Civic or Mazda3.