12-10-2014, 07:12 AM | #1 |
No more BMWs
Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
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Owning a Ferrari is a disappointment. Is owning a Porsche one, too?
http://jalopnik.com/owning-a-ferrari...ent-1668355120
This article got me to thinking about Boxster ownership (take 2). Not that it's been disappointing; it's actually been quite nice. But some of his observations got me thinking. 1) People don't like this car. Let me be clear: Maryland drivers are, by and large, terrible and discourteous, but also oblivious. When I had the BMW, their obliviousness meant I could make pretty rapid pace through traffic without really getting noticed. Nobody cared. That doesn't work anymore. Come up behind someone doing the speed limit in the left lane? They won't move over. Go around them on the right? They'll speed up until they match your speed. 2) Every Mustang will try to try to get you to race them. Every single one. 3) Come to think of it, every vanilla-mobile driver will try to race you, too. Camry, Accord, Altima, Fusion, Malibu, doesn't really matter. If you leave a traffic light at anything faster than a crawl, they will match your speed or get their nose just ahead of yours. If you leave a traffic light at a crawl, you'll get honked at. 4) A guy in a slammed Honda Civic with one functioning brake light will call you a "faggot." 5) No matter how courteous you are, you will get the finger, or get tailgated and high-beamed, or get blocked. I use my signals, I give people plenty of room, and I generally try to drive in a courteous manner. I don't drive abruptly, I don't go significantly faster than the speed limit and I certainly don't weave in and out of traffic. But try to merge onto I-95? The guy you pulled in front of - the one that was a hundred feet back and dawdling along - will rapidly accelerate the minute he sees your signal, so he can slam on the brakes, high beam you, and act like you cut him off. 6) The best one so far: A guy at work who drives a $70k+ Ford F-350 King Ranch DRW 6.7L Powerstroke will come up to you, scoff, and say, "Man, they pay you guys too much." |
12-10-2014, 07:32 AM | #2 |
Relic
Join Date: Oct 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: A very fast golf cart
Location: The Valley of the Sun
Posts: 12,821
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When I had my Boxster, I worried about the asshole perception -- and observed some of the same behavior you describe. But it wasn't that frequent...
For the F-350 guy, I had comments like that from coworkers when I had my E46. All were from people with $45k+ SUVs (and my E46 was $35k including sales tax...)
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12-10-2014, 08:25 AM | #3 |
Alphanumeric
Join Date: Aug 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: 981S, 340i
Posts: 9,586
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Owning a porsche has not been all that different from owning a bmw in these parts... I never got stopped or got negative attention with the atlas gray cayman. The red one, umm, not as much. It got more positive attention it also seemed to personally piss off a cop once.. Yours is yellow, no? If it were silver/black/gray, the experience would be quite different.
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12-10-2014, 08:51 AM | #4 |
No more BMWs
Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
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It is yellow. I do think that has something to do with it. In the Jalopnik article, he indicates there are two kinds of people who buy a Ferrari. Those that want to be noticed and those that like the experience of driving. I think that's true for more than just Ferraris and the assumption may be that someone driving a yellow Porsche wants attention. In reality, it was a color that was available that my wife and I both liked.
In retrospect, I guess I understand why people buy gray and black ones (really, I wanted white). |
12-10-2014, 08:54 AM | #5 |
lawn boy
Join Date: Oct 2003
Carmudgeonly Ride: e46m3, f25x3,C5 Z06, C4 Vette, 06 CTD Ram, and a trailer
Location: Maryland
Posts: 14,029
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Yep. You just had to get Yellow.
I've found that driving a large, noisy, diesel truck is pretty much the solution to all of your traffic related issues. |
12-10-2014, 09:13 AM | #6 |
redefined
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 14,903
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Porsches are so dime-a-dozen around here that I can't imagine getting singled out on any kind of regular basis with these kinds of behaviors.
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12-10-2014, 09:16 AM | #7 |
195
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 24,628
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Yes, I haven't really noticed much negative attention in mine, despite it being bright blue. I think yellow or red might be more noticeable.
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12-10-2014, 09:20 AM | #8 |
195
Join Date: Oct 2003
Posts: 24,628
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I have had people say snide things to me about it. I can usually defuse that by telling people (accurately) that a) it's used, and b) it cost less than my Volkswagen.
I do get positive attention occasionally, mostly during the summer from tourists. But the attention the Porsche gets is nothing compared to the Tesla. |
12-10-2014, 09:22 AM | #9 |
Crotchety
Join Date: Aug 2007
Carmudgeonly Ride: 22 Tiguan, 11 328i
Posts: 912
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#2 is always accurate.
I hear the #6 scenario a lot, but I usually would have to remind them of the cost of their car of choice. I still remember when a friend from my hometown bought the top-of-the-line Durango a couple years ago and said the same thing to me (it was ~$20k more than my FRS). |
12-10-2014, 10:02 AM | #10 |
No more BMWs
Join Date: Apr 2005
Carmudgeonly Ride: Ram, MS3, CX-5, RX-8
Location: Glenwood, MD
Posts: 14,753
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There are so many Teslas around here now I don't even really notice them as much. They're also fairly anonymous looking - I've mistaken some of the newer Lincolns from Teslas. Porsches are a dime a dozen as well, but presumably yellow cars are not.
Bren, when I drive the truck to work it's a completely different experience. People generally leave plenty of room for me to merge when driving that thing. |
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