Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz.
My friends all drive porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends.
So oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz

My wife used to drive a nice looking Mercedes 190 with a 5 speed when we were first dating. I kept it waxed and it looked great. Many of her co-workers were convinced it was a 100 grand car, and as I remember we sold it for 15K and thought was a great price. She replaced that with a E320 that was even nicer and again she got comments that it must be nice to be rich and such as they pulled up next to her in a Suburban worth twice the price of the Mercedes.

20 years ago when I was saving for my 930, I pointed at a mid 70's 911 driving through the grocery store parking lot and mentioned to my wife that I could pick up one of these right now for about $6K and not wait for the 930. A lady walking nearby whispered to her friend that I was crazy for thinking I could by a Porsche for $6K. Of course that car today is worth way more but at the time it was just the cheapest 911.

On the flip side, when I first bought my Cayman I overheard someone walking by tell their friend that the Boxster/Cayman's were the cheap Porsches and only cost about $50K. I wish!

20 years ago I sold a '77 Targa for 6K. That was the going price. We were just talking about this yesterday, that the same car would sell for 35+ today and be even more maintenance (expense). Honestly, I wouldn't even come close to thinking about spending that kind of money for that kind of ball and chain.

Just like houses in CA, the cost of a middie 911 is completely lopsided. 930's I can see holding value.

You likely made the right decision.

“I bet it’s REALLY FAST”

"Has it got a turbo?"

"Sir, it's got four turbos. One for each corner of the car,"

Back in my bachelor days I washed my 914 in the driveway, and the neighborhood kids would ride up on bikes and chat. The one question was always "how fast will it go" or how fast have you gone it in?

I would let them sit in it if they were not all dirty and they all were impressed with a speedometer that went to 150 as I remember. I sold it 26 years ago so I really don't remember to top number on the speedo.

In a neighborhood of mostly boring cars, pickups, and vans a sports car was something fun for the kids.

^^^ That's the first thing kids mention when looking into a car. "Wow...the speedo goes up to ....."

Way way back in 1974 when I first got my 1974 914 2.0 and was out just driving for fun and enjoying the fun back roads of Alabama I ended up in Weogufka, AL and I stopped for gas. The gas station looked like the one in the Andy Griffith TV show, and that was a standard design for stations back then.

Anyway I started filling up the tank. The price of gas had shot way up to 54 cents a gallon, but I filled up anyway. It was pretty deserted. I heard two boys that looked like what you are imagining for 1974, 8 year old boys in very rural Alabama. One of them poked the other in the shoulder and I could her him say "lookie thar, that's a real race car". I smiled and waved at them and they hopped on bikes and rode off.

Likely I put in 6 bucks to fill the tank and get back home.

What does money have to do with genes?

Steerage or stowaway ?

Well, half of your genes combine with the other half of your genes resulting in you and if either half (or better yet, both) came from extreme wealth...you're very likely to be a genetic lottery winner irrespective of quality or capacity to see or reason beyond the end of your nose. Take the time to pencil out all of those odds.

That should be a whole other thread: "when did you learn that speedometers didn't show the car's top speed?"

For me probably around 12-13. My high school library had magazine subscriptions for Road & Track and Car & Driver. Whenever I had free time like before class, lunch, etc I would sit in the library and read car magazines. I was one of those obnoxious kids that could spout off all car specifications.

It does if you don't have any money in your jeans.

Mother in Tucson is on a first name basis with an ex FED Chairman (the other one has since passed).. Her comment was, "Show me a man with a MB and I will show you a man with no money."

That is not exactly true I knew Mary La Fetra who was the founder and owner of the Rainbird corp.. She told me she sold her RR because she didn't like how it drove and bought a MB instead....

Upon an occasion I met one of the Douglas's as in McDonald Douglas...his comment was, "That rich people drive RR and wealthy people drive VW vans".. Which meant that his family drove VW's.

I can tell you from first hand experience that you get a lot of deference when you drive a RR...I opted for a Ford F150..dirivng it nobody even knows you are alive....Bliss...

Old money sees a car as an appliance..go from here to there. New money wants flash, to let everybody know they have arrived.. Nigel Rich..

Socially I met Walt Emmick..Walt at the time was approaching his 80's wore what looked like Thrift store clothing..drove around in a coupla old Chevy Pu's....Nobody quite knew what old Wlat was worth...20M or was it 200M...he had a twin Beech, a ranch in Simi Valley and one in KY..and lived in Al Jolson's house in the Valley..Katy Sagal eventually bought it..YA see old Walt was into Tilt Up Warehouses out in Commerce, CA...he had lots of them.. His problem was he had no one to take care of the biz for him, so as he said to go on a weeks vacation in Alaska fishing he had to work twice as hard for 2 weeks before.

Anybody read The Millionaire Next Door? Apparently, quite often the rich guys aren’t the ones driving expensive cars and wearing fancy watches. It’s an interesting read.

^^^funny. The woman who made the comment? She drove a clapped out Toyota van for years. Her husband? A Camry.

Or they live in a cheap, paid off, low property tax house so they can drive Porsches and still save/invest money :D

In my experience 90% of the public can't tell the difference between a $10k 25 year old base Boxster and a brand new $100K+ 25th anniversary 718, they look like the same car to them. It's a silver two seat sports car with a Porsche badge on the front. Hell, most people can't tell the difference between a 25 year old base Boxster and a new Turbo S 911 convertible if they were both silver with gray leather interior. The people who know the difference are either teen age kids or people stretching to lease their new Lexus to prove they've made it in life. Outside of my car enthusiast friends, the very high net worth friends just drive not only regular cars, but older regular cars at that. And as others have said, the older the money, the less they care or notice what you or they drive. I have friends in the $5-10M net worth range who drive a five year old Subaru and a 10 year old Ford C-max hand me downs.

So it has nothing to do with genetics at all, just a smarmy, classist remark.

Thank you for the clarification


I actually did win the genetic lottery. I expect to live a hundred years in good health and will die with a full head of thick hair