[CJFusco]

The subject of cars is one of those where every man instantly believes himself to be an expert. I had a conversation with a coworker that went something like this:

HIM: Do you know what the fakest (this is his word choice, I swear) Porsche is? The Boxster.

ME: Um. How do you figure?

HIM: It's just fake. It's slow, like not even a real Porsche.

ME: What? The Boxster is a great car. It's not slow -- well, the first models were considered a little underpowered, but the newest 3.2 S models will give a two-year-old 911 a run for its money. Actually, the Boxster is considered the benchmark in two-seater convertibles by most automotive journalists, even by guys like Clarkson who don't even like Porsche.

HIM: Oh. Really?

Why do people make such bold assertions when they obviously have no idea what they are talking about? I remember when I was 18 years old, the Viper had just debuted, and a friend of mine made the auspicious claim that the Viper was the "fastest car in the world". I ran inside to get the newest issue of ROAD & TRACK as fast as I could.