porsche and magazine comparison reviews

Nay. If you read the British car magazines, like Autocar, Evo, and Car, the Porsches win the comparisons every time, especially when the

911 is involved. The Corvette is finally earning some street cred in Europe and the UK, but it's still not up there with the 911. I agree with the US magazines that Porsches are over-priced (it was recently reported that they make about $20,000/car, more than any other car maker), but few cars come close in terms of handling in their price/performance level. epbrown

Some things I have been chewing on since I read this original post....

1. The Corvettes and Porsches of today are cars that differ from each other so much. I think the 928 was the closest thing Porsche ever made to a Corvette. So today there is a built-in niche for subjective, emotional, and "perfect for this but not for that" debate that will go on and on and on....
2. It's hard to call today's Corvettes overpriced, and the Z06 seems like a real bargain (if you could buy one for sticker price). I would never drive out of a Porsche dealership feeling like I had gotten a great deal. If you want some fun, go to Porsche USA's web site and use their "build your dream car" configurator. Start with a Cayman S and add on every single conceivable option including slathering every piece of the interior in leather. Did you almost double the price of the car? Is there something else you would enjoy owning more for the same money? (If you did this same exercise with a 911, could you cross into Audi R8 territory?)
3. Porsche does occasionally come out with a "streetable" super-exotic - the 959 if the late 80's, and the Carrera GT of this decade. Do you think These give Ferrari et al a run for their money in the critic's eyes? The General has never done sold anything like this, to the best of my knowledge, and so....
4. The after-market arena can take your 'vette and turn it into anything you want, even make it practically unrecognizable as a 'vette. (Did you double the price of the car?... :-) ) I don't know too many Porsche owners who would look to do something like that with their car.
5. It seems like there are lots of reasons people buy Ferraris, Lambos, etc. other than to have a competent sports car to drive. How many do you see in the secondary market that have real mileage on them?

I read the car mags, and the articles are designed to tell people like me what I'm missing. The fact is that the Cayman S is the car I'm most likely to own, and anything else is pure fantasy.

Just some thoughts, have a great day.

Dave St.T Boulder, CO

other than to have a competent sports car to drive.

I think people that buy high-end exotics buy them to drive, but these are expensive toys and play time in that income bracket tends to be limited; often they have lots of other toys as well. That adds up to low mileage. I've only got two cars, and my 4 year-old Z4 has just 25,000 miles on it, and the only reason it's *that* much is because I visit family about once a month, and that's an 800-mile round trip. If I used my

3-series for those trips during the warm months, the Z4 would be down to around 2000 miles/year - Ferrari-type mileage. As this link shows there are 109 2003 Z4s like mine in the US with fewer than 15,000miles. epbrown

other than to have a competent sports car to drive.

Yeah, that's a good point. Mostly I think about how incredibly impractical these cars get to be in terms of the real world - but then I live in a very different world. . I know this is way off topic, but just for grins I built the most expensive MSRP Z06 2007 Corvette that I could. It stickers under $77K. I went out and built the most expensive 2007 Carrera S that I could. I totally get it that no one would really do this. But it's impressive. The base price of this car is $82.6K. Porsche is willing to sell me one that costs $151.5K. A base Cayman S is $58.9K, but I was able to gas it up to $106K - A tiptronic would add another $3200. . 'Shows ya what I can do when I have more time than money to spend... :-)

Dave

you're an attorney/soliciter/rechtsanwalt arn't you? Reason I ask is that everytime I read your posts I'm thinkin' "If I ever get my ass in a sling out in E. Brown's neck of the woods he's gonna be my one/first call".

Nope, just old and feisty. :) epbrown