Medical professionals and their vehicles

[Oh Haha]

I thought I would start a discussion on what I have seen since starting my new job dealing with medical professionals. I was curious as to why a majority drive import vehicles. I have seen more Mercedes, BMW, and Audi vehicles than ever down in the area I work. It's around 20 miles south of Flint, BTW.


All we have heard here in the Mid-Michigan area is how we need to support the UAW and the domestic car companies. I have my own feelings about them as do others here on Pelican so this isn't a thread to bash anyone.


Any of you care to give your thoughts on this?

I don't care what my doctor drives but I have heard stories, firsthand, of folks asking what the doctor drives and if it ain't 'Merican they find a different doctor.

EDIT: I'm sorry. This should be in off topic. My home page automatically opens to the tech forum. Please move at a moderator's leisure.

[porschenut]

My thoughts are: if you're making good money, why buy a Buick when you can have a Merc? Not much thought required, really.

[m110]

I am an orthopaedic surgeon who works at a big trauma center. I see people in major car accidents every day. I ask every one what kind of car they were in. My opinion is that German cars are safer and better built. The crash tests done in this country are a joke.
Furthermore, I work with drills, plates, screws, rasps, reamers, BFHs, slap hammers every day. I think orthopaedic surgeons in general also like working on cars and appreciate well built items...911s are well built and interactive to drive.

[Zeke]

I'll send this to PARF right now. Don't we all know that medical professionals are liberals? Didn't they all start by driving VW's to college? Is there any neighborhood status in owning an Escalade?

This thread needs no answers.

Luxury in the US was Lincolns and Cadillacs when I was a teen. Then came the Mercedes and Porsche models of significant comfort and they were... uh... different. It took BMW a few years to catch the wave. Audi was an afterthought.

You know the rest.

[signature65]

Hey Milt didnt we ALL start our P-car fetish with driving a VW to college......haha

[cole930]

My cancer surgeon called me 2 weeks ago and asked about a 40 th. Anv. Carrera he's looking at. I sent him info and the going prices.
I go back to Mayo Sept. 2 and he scheduled an appointment for me to see him so we can go out and flog on his new car.
I had sent him a T shirt with "Drive it like you stole it" on the front a couple years ago. At my last surgery I was in the operating room laying on the table and when he came in he flashed me that shirt from under his scrubs. He told me "don't you worry about a thing, I'm just like your Porsche; "There is No Substitute"

Cole

[tlarocque]

Well, I'm a doctor so I guess I can chime in. Agree with what m110 says and a couple observations of my own...

1) there's a huge difference between how you are treated when you purchase an import, particularly if its a "luxury" brand. The treat you with respect and, if you finish looking at a car and tell them that you will call them if you want to proceed, they don't ring your f---ing phone off the hook for the next 2 weeks trying to convince you to buy their car. Having your BMW/Mercedes/Porsche/Infinit/Lexus serviced is also a MUCH more pleasant expericence and they almost always give you a nice loaner so you can still go about your day. That alone is almost worth the delta in price.

2) Every time I rent a car its some American POS. The materials, build, ride, look... everything... just sucks! If you've ever driven a Malibu and then got behind the wheel of a BMW, there's no way you're going to buy the Malibu if you can afford the BMW. Doesn't help that every rental car lot is full of the same crap so even if you decide to purchase an American car its not going to be worth anything when it comes time to sell/trade. My '88 Carrera with 130k miles still looks, drives, feels like new.. no squeaks or rattles, was built to be driven hard and last a long time.

I'd love to purchase a truly American car. Clearly American workers are capable of assembling a decent car as lots of foreign companies are manufacturing here in the U.S. The problem IS the American car makers and (thankfully) they're finally having to face reality. Too bad the government is bailing them out as I'd rather see some privately funded American folks buy up the plants and start from scratch designing and building something worth driving.

P.S.- yes, I started with an '87 16v Scirocco, then a GTI, then a Jetta.

[911pcars]

Originally Posted by Oh Haha

.....I don't care what my doctor drives but I have heard stories, firsthand, of folks asking what the doctor drives and if it ain't 'Merican they find a different doctor.

Those comments about buying American might be due to the area in which you reside/work (Michigan), the ex-car capital of the world.

It was a lot worse a few years ago, I heard they wouldn't allow foreign cars in the GM, Ford, Chrysler employee parking lots; and many were vandalized due to the backlash against foreign cars, mainly Japanese cars, reducing American car sales.

In 1982, a certain Vincent Chin was murdered because some drunken auto workers thought he was Japanese (Japanese = Japanese car manufacturer). In that Chin was Chinese-American apparently didn't dawn on the perps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Chin

Do you think history doesn't repeat itself? Think again>
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081216/AUTO01/812160375&imw=Y

Sorry for the side-track. Maybe a better location for this is at PARF.

Sherwood

[Nader]

A number of doctors are high-end car guys. A number are also out to save the world (and drive Priuses, Hondas, Subarus, you get the idea). American cars don't fit in either slot. Porsches, AMGs, Ms, Rs, etc go unnoticed by the other half... until something Italian shows up and raises their hackles. Something about conspicuous consumption.

I have to admit that I've had days where I'd wished I wasn't leaving the hospital in a flashy car in case the family members of a horribly sick patient saw me in it. I suspect for this reason some doctors keep their fancy iron at home and commute in the SUV or sedan. Check the doctors' lot on weekends and you'll occasionally see some interesting exotic and vintage machinery.

[livi]

In Sweden nobody cares what kind of car a doctor drives. Most patients doesn´t know anyway. Unfortunate in my position, as I deal with dozens of MILF´s daily.

[rllevin]

Into every doctors life a little porsche must fall.
Go look at the executive parking area of any corporation and tell me what you see.

[juicersr]

Originally Posted by livi

In Sweden nobody cares what kind of car a doctor drives. Most patients doesn´t know anyway. Unfortunate in my position, as I deal with dozens of MILF´s daily.

OB/Gyn, i assume, Marcus?

As an american with half a brain, since i got my drivers license eons ago, i have always gravitated toward intelligently designed cars, with style, great handling, brakes: in other words, European iron, and at the top of this heap lay Porsche.

Growing up, I thought all cars were boring, utiliatarian pieces of iron, that were supposed to look like turds and handle like them as well, until one day, around age 13 or 14, a friends dad took us to soccer practice in his early 70's 911.... from that day on, i knew that u didnt half to settle for half-ass tranportation.

Impression in general about things is formed early on. When u grow up in an era when Detroit churned out nothing but garbage, styling and mechanical wise (my dad got so pissed with american crap in the 70's/80's that he bought his first Mercedes in 1980 and never went back - and he fought in the Navy in WW2), it takes a lot to change ur mind.

That, plus i have always, and still do, find american iron in general dull, boring bloated and without any passion or soul whatsoever.

[WPOZZZ]

I have many doctor friends and most of them are car nuts like myself.

My personal physician has been with me for the past 36 years. When he was just starting out his career he had SLs, Jags, Ferraris and 930 turbos. In later life and a 2nd wife, he still had a 930 and a Lexus SC. That turned to practicality as he started a new family so he started driving a minivan. he got the itch and started buying trucks and has a supercharged GMC and a modded Ford Lightning. That kept him happy until he bought a Nissan GT-R last year. When I drove it, that had me thinking about getting one of those, too!

Other doctor friends drive either Lexus' or European luxury cars. Another surgeon friend has a beautiful 997S, but drives a Honda Accord to the hospital. Very different people, but still car nuts under the skin.

I think the reasoning behind buying what we do is, we work hard for our money so we might as well enjoy it.

[livi]

Originally Posted by juicersr

OB/Gyn, i assume, Marcus?

No. Kids doc. All my patients (well, not all..) mothers define the term pretty well.

[KCTarga3.2]

"if it ain't 'Merican they find a different doctor" - this thinking that if you were american you bought an american car is the reason GM got complacent and starting producing junk. They are just now almost catching up. Competition breeds excellence, and the fact that docs want to drive Audi, BMW's and Merc means that the US manufacturers still have some work to do.

[indigowhale]

Originally Posted by m110

I am an orthopaedic surgeon who works at a big trauma center. I see people in major car accidents every day. I ask every one what kind of car they were in. My opinion is that German cars are safer and better built. The crash tests done in this country are a joke.
Furthermore, I work with drills, plates, screws, rasps, reamers, BFHs, slap hammers every day. I think orthopaedic surgeons in general also like working on cars and appreciate well built items...911s are well built and interactive to drive.

I had read these kind of comments from other trauma center doctors. They get to see the "after" results.

While installing a laptop mount in one of our GM fleet vehicles, we had to remove the seat. To get to the rear bolts we had to unhook the trim cover. I went to grab the seat to pull it forward and out. I came out with a very deep cut in my finger. There was a razor sharp edge on one of the seat bracket plates. Had I pulled harder, it would cut to the bone. Can only imagine what someone looking for a quarter under the seat or hanging on a wild ride would experience. This razor edge is normally covered by fabric that any roudy kid can pull off.

[Paulporsche]

People would go to a doctor based on the country of origin of his/her car. Amazing.

[berettafan]

Originally Posted by milt

I'll send this to PARF right now. Don't we all know that medical professionals are liberals? Didn't they all start by driving VW's to college? Is there any neighborhood status in owning an Escalade?

This thread needs no answers.

Luxury in the US was Lincolns and Cadillacs when I was a teen. Then came the Mercedes and Porsche models of significant comfort and they were... uh... different. It took BMW a few years to catch the wave. Audi was an afterthought.

You know the rest.

people that make a lot of dough can afford to be idealistic...kinda like Congress. were i earning doctor money you can be sure i'd be driving an E class every day to work. just a damn nice car.

yup, i remember the days when people said bmw's were great but when you saw one and rode in it you were like....why? they were like slightly upscale datsuns. of course as a kid if it didn't look like a Countach it couldn't possibly be a performance car. and audi's were owned by the odd person in the neighborhood. you knew (as a kid) that since it was european it must be nice but....

[trader220]

My pop is a doc and he is very solidly on the right side of the isle. I thing you’ll find a lot of doctors there especially with the new health care mess. He drives an Import and has for many years. He has an 86 SL and a 07 M35x. He works in rural NJ down in farm country and his patients don’t care what he drives as long as he treats them well. The rest of his practice is in an affluent area and the majority of those patients drives imports and are a bigger PITA then those easy going rural people and the affluent ones probably expect him to drive an import.

There have been a lot of really silly unfounded generalizations in this thread. I would hope that those people who don’t see a doc because of what he drives care more about getting the proper doctor and a good doctor and their own health care then what the doc drives. Here is a generalization for you those people saying...

“if it ain't 'Merican they find a different doctor.”

Those people are probably the ones smoking and eating crap and need good health care earlier and more often than others.


This thread is in the 911 forum and not the OT because why?

[dw1]

Originally Posted by trader220

This thread is in the 911 forum and not the OT because why?

Good question.

Perhaps "Porsche Marketplace" might be a good alternate location.

I certainly don't mind a good discussion thread, and this board gets a lot of traffic, but it's also getting very clogged with non-technical items that make it more & more difficult to use the search function to find anything.