spudgun:
One last question: if a 911 is a wrong signal for your costumers (very plausable) wouldn't a low key car ( your Mini for example) be smarter, bussines wise? If you're so sensitive towards bussiness image, why not go the whole 10 yards and downgrade your work DD?
Not saying the Gts is a bad choice, great car. Enjoy it to the fullest.
Here comes the funny part: Envy is one problem, pity another one. When I showed up at my business in the Mini for the very first time, some customers asked me what happened to the nice X5 and if business is that bad. No kidding. At some point, people get the wrong idea why business slows down, so there is a thin line between envy and pity and you cannot cross it. They may think that business slowed down because you aren't good at what you are doing, another problem here. The X5 was just the right package, even the C63 was kind of acceptable (people unfortunately recognized it quite often but these customers returned, so no problems here...the C63 was still no 911).
A 911 would send the wrong signal indeed...fun car, car nobody really "needs", not the car of a serious family person, etc. etc. etc. I really talked to my wife and some friends about this a couple of times and everyone agreed that perception-wise, the Cayenne is just perfect. The Cayenne has become "acceptable" in Germany because Porsche did a great job in visually downsizing the shape of the Cayenne and making it less aggressive/massive. You see many Cayenne in Germany, not so many Panamera. My customers also know that I had a Cayenne before the X5, so this would be OK. I really need to be careful with perception and at one point I also realized that customers don't want to listen to your whining, so I stopped telling them that business is more difficult now because of changed laws and tons of new legal requirements. Customers want to feel good and they feel good if there is no envy but also no pity. I think I found the right middle with the Cayenne, at least I hope so. Perception-wise, my wife is always right BUT I have to blame her a little bit that I didn't take a Cayenne Turbo Powerkit in the first place, so I would have only ONE big car. On the other hand, she is right...another garage queen for a couple of fun days per year doesn't make sense, so the combo of a Panamera Turbo S and a Cayenne GTS is, from my perspective, just perfect.
When the Mini goes in 18 months or so, I may reconsider getting a fun car but this also depends on how the business is going and even more how the stock markets evolve.
@Nick: Thanks a lot for the compliment, yes, I am a family man. Yesterday, my wife invited a bunch of her female friends to dinner and I was the only guy sitting among a dozend females gossipping about god and the world. I never felt that helpless in my life but according to my wife and kids, I did well.
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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche Panamera Turbo S, Cayenne GTS (958), BMW X3 35d (2012), Mini Cooper S Countryman All4