>Why would I want to own a "far more expensive" self driving car?

It doesn't matter what you want, it matters what car companies do. They're not going to spend millions of dollars on R&D and marketing hype for self-driving cars only to make far less money on them than they do now on conventional cars.

>My car is a never ending money pit with insurance, gas, maintenance, registration, tires, it never stops.

Yes. That's the entire point, cars are micro-economies supporting multiple businesses and profit centers. And self driving cars will be the same, for the same reasons.