You know what the benefits of ANY car is? Being able to offer rides to friends. Being a designated driver isn't a bad thing either. The trick is to not take your car seriously. If you baby your car, the pool of potential significant others drops dramatically.
I treat my cars quite well, but I don't go out of my way to ensure it's beautiful and showy. I was a bit angry the first time I got keyed, now, I don't give a crap. It's a car, it takes me places, I have fun in it, I have memories of going on trips in it; but that's all secondary to the friends I enjoyed those things with.
Seriously, any car will do. Don't take it too seriously. A mud stain on the bottom of the trunk from hiking in dirt with a few good friends is more a badge of honor on the car than a pristine fabric trunk.
Buy it, love it and enjoy it.
There's also a difference between letting loose and thrashing your car and babying it though. Don't treat a car like a garbage can. Throw that garbage away. Clean spills when they happen asap and don't get all fussy if there's a stain. Give your car a rinse rather than allow it to look like it had a day at the mud spa (mainly for the rest of us who have to wipe your car with our shirts squeezing past it to get into our cars) and of course, please don't drive into curbs.