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ADias said:
his surprises me in Germany. I understand the rasons you mention, but still, Germany is the land of performance automobiles and most who drive them do it for the sport and not as poseurs.
I'm not born in Germany and I lived many years in Eastern Europe. Did school in Switzerland and I've seen this and that and met a lot of interesting people, including people who might be considered terrorists nowadays and maybe with a reason. So I learned a lot about different mentalities, beliefs and little annoyances or positive things specific to certain nationalities, religions, etc.
All I can say is that Germans are among those who show a very strong envy and what surprises me most is the fact that those people aren't poor people who don't have anything to eat but pretty wealthy people who don't even know what a good life they have.
Germany is the country where people remove the model designation badges from their cars to make neighbours, friends and customers/clients believe that they drive the cheapest model, for example a Mercedes S class or BMW 7series.
I have so called friends who accuse me of destroying the environment and taking away the air to breathe from their kids (no kidding!!!) because I drive a Porsche Cayenne which uses so much fuel. And when me and CR mentioned lately in a private discussion at my house (we had a party) that we drove 340+ kph on an empty Autobahn for half a day just for fun and testing, it is magic that people didn't lynch us instantly. And these are people who drive BMW 5-series, Mini Cooper S, etc.
Germany isn't what it was anymore but the cause isn't necessarily the people but the press media. If you're reading every single day how the rich people get richer and the poor people poorer (poor in Germany means: driving a Mercedes, owning your own house, taking a 3 week vacation to some exotic place every year...
), no wonder people start to believe that crap. I also read the comments about car prices in Germany, I mean nobody forces a customer to buy a BMW 1series for 35000 Euro, right? But of course people aren't satisfied with a VW Golf and they want to show to their neighbors that they're actually not that poor.
I know I might simplify things a little bit but envy has become part of the german mentality and everyday life and it is very sad.
Another (last) example to make you understand how far this "illness" goes: the son of my the owner of my Porsche dealership can't drive a Porsche "officially" because customers and neighbours would comment about this.
I didn't believe my ears when I heard that and it is true, when customers saw him in a Boxster, they immediately made negative comments. Unbelievable! I mean what should he drive, a Skoda?
Of course he drives all kind of Porsche models now but of course not privately, at least not "officially".
It is the same with my neighbours (one of them drives a 996 Targa and others BMW 7series, Jaguar XJ, Audi A8 and so on): they always make stupid comments, especially when I take home cars for testing. Lucky me, one of them was once in Weissach on a tourist tour when he saw me at the Casino inside the facility talking to a Porsche VIP. As a visitor he got a visitor's badge with a red border and he immediately observed that I had a badge with a picture attached to my belt. He greeted me and walked away with his group. What he didn't know: the badge on my belt was the badge of the guy I was having lunch with , he went to the restroom and forgot it at the table and I put it on my belt so I don't forget to give it back to him.
Since then, my neighbors think I'm working for Porsche and no more stupid comments.
Neighbour gossip...
And we also have a lot of poseures here in Germany, no doubt about it. But the most dangerous thing is: 90% think they drive good or very good but they don't care about the car's technical basis, tire pressures, setups, etc.
A very good example: Hockenheim Kleiner Kurs. I was once there in my 996 Turbo (already tuned to over 543 HP) and did a few laps, the best lap time was 1 min 19,x sec. This isn't spectacular but maybe you should compare it to this: during most club races, the best lap times are in the 1 min 30,x range. I'm talking about serious amateur racing, not just fun driving like I did. Also interesting: some cars which do 1 min 30,x + sec. times (up to 1 min 40,x sec.) are heavily modified and have up to 600 HP and more.
Also interesting: there are some 996 with OEM power among them and they do times below 1 min 20,x sec.
You see: we Germans aren't perfect at all and despite the fact that we build very nice sportscars, we're far away from being THE nation of sportscar drivers. And the envy stuff "eats" us all, it destroys friendships, it destroys businesses and finally it doesn't get anywhere.
We have a serious economic crisis right now and all our beloved government and press can do is criticizing the US government for lowering taxes. I wish they'd do the same here, business would surely boom. But with former eastern european countries joining the EC, a lot of companies are planning to move their production facilities from Germany to those ex-communist countries. What is good for Poland, the Czech republic, Hungary, etc. and the soon to be EC members Romania, Bulgaria, etc. is very bad for Germany and other EC countries regarding unemployment. We have very strict working laws and a bureaucracy which is unbelievable, especially in times when extra money isn't available. I suppose we Germans will learn our "lesson" the hard way.
Sorry for the long off-topic post, I just got carried away...