nberry:
Christian, my purpose in buying a SUV apparently is considerably different from yours. Do you drive aggressively in the Cayenne while your family is in the vehicle? If so, you're nuts. FWIW, apparently Porsche is connecting the dots. They will be offering a Cajun SUV and probably will be priced far less the the Cayenne.
BTW, I never extol my relatively modest driving skills. Nor should you because that attitude could get you killed especially if you believe you are the reincarnate of Sena. I would miss your occasional self-praising posts.
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Nick, I'm 46 years old. I had my last "self-inflicted" accident at age 19 (looking at a beautiful girl walking on the boardwalk and "kissing" the car in front of me because he stopped and I didn't...).
My secrets for 27 years of accident-free (not even hit by others, with the exception of parking lots) driving:
1. I never drive at my limit, not on a public street, not on the track. Never, not even if I'm provoked. I don't know why but there is something always keeping me from trying the limit, which is a good thing...unless of course you want to win in a professional race (the reason why I wasn't too successful during my group N Rallye racing days, I always was too worried about the well-being of my car and my co-pilot).
2. I always pay attention to others and how they drive. This has saved me from many potential accidents.
3. I always keep my cars in perfect shape, tires, brakes, engine, everything. This is why I don't like and/or trust old(er) cars.
4. I love driving, I pay attention to every detail when driving and believe it or not, I'm even using my turn signal correctly all the time. Driving like a jerk on the street reflects on the track in a way or another.
I have no points on my driver's license either and I can tell you, that I'm not somebody who drives slowly. I can spot radar traps and even laser traps, I pay attention and a very good eyesight (175% vision sharpness) helps too. Unfortunately I have trouble reading my mail without reading glasses, so somebody blessed me with a fantastic far distance viewing capability but everything else is degrading slowly.
This doesn't mean I can't make mistakes and this also doesn't mean that I drive like Senna. I probably drive better than most drivers around me but I'm not even close to somebody like Senna, I suppose this was kind of a joke.
My attitude about my driving skills is simple: I know how I can drive and I know my limitations.
I never drive aggressively, I always drive very fast. People who ride with me for the first time, usually think that I want to show off or that I let myself provoked easily. I heard this many times. Ask my wife, she knows me and knows that I drive for me, not for others. I do not show off, never. This is not my style, on the contrary. I have however a certain driving "rhythm" which some people may consider extremely fast or aggressive. It isn't.
The reason why I would never ever drive a Honda SUV is simple: Driving fun. This is very important for me. We have a Mini Countryman Cooper S in our family and to be honest, I really don't enjoy driving it. I need power, I need that special feel of a powerful engine, it is difficult to explain. The chassis is also very important and the overall feel of the car. Take the Infintiy QX56 I drove during our last trip to Miami a week ago. Very nice and powerful engine, very comfortable and safe ride but the tires started squeaking at half the curve speeds I usually do in my X5 M. Horrible. Such a SUV can't be fun.
My daily driver is usually the family car, usually a SUV. I could easily afford a 911 GT3 RS 4.0 if I would stick with a much cheaper (and boring) family car as a daily driver but daily driver already says it all. I wouldn't want to sacrifice my driving daily driving pleasure for a few hours of pure driving ecstasy on weekends. This is like being married to a beautiful and sexy woman but cheating on her from time to time with an even more beautiful and more sexy woman. I would sacrifice my marriage and my happiness for that, so I wouldn't do it.
Bottom line is: Car guys suffer when they have to drive boring and/or slow cars. I suffer like a dog. We had a Smart as a delivery car for my company and I was driving this ugly "thing" almost every day and I hated it. I hated it so much that I was in 7th heaven when we returned back this thing to the lease company.
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 997 Carrera GTS Cabriolet PDK, BMW X5M, BMW M3 Cab DKG, Mini Cooper S Countryman All4