Why did you do it?

[Bart Carter]

So, those of you that gave up your M5:

WHY DID YOU DO IT?


I can't think of a reason to buy ANY car over an M5. I can understand buying an additional car, but not giving up your M5.

[Gustav]

A usual "excuse" to get an M5 is due kids, so the Porsche had to go.

Not the other way around!

[greg]

I am SO lucky that I can keep both cars.

If I could keep only one, though, it would be.........














The M5. Really. The Porsche is more fun to drive hard, and a lot less pleasant to drive the rest of the time. I like my M5's room, my quiet, my stereo, my seat heaters, my folding rear seats, my trunk, my gorgeous interior - oh yeah - its pretty fast, too!

If I tracked my car 6-12x a year instead of 1
If I didn't have children
If I didn't have to carry large objects
If I didn't need enough room for my wife AND my suitcases
If I didn't mind the limited range (small gas tank)
If I didn't want to listen to music sans road noise without resorting to way-too-loud stereo


THEN I would probably be very satisfied with the Porsche as an only car.

Still - it is a car everyone who can afford it should experience at some point in their lives!

[MWM]

Greg makes great points. I agree with all of them. I have put much thought into this; although it would take a week to articulate all of it, here are the main points:

Firstly, the M5 wasn't my daily driver. My daily driver is worth less than $1000. In NYC, you can get places faster if you don't care about your car -- you can be a lot more aggressive, especially when a cab is trying to "rub you off." You just hold your ground, others realize that you aren't going to back off because you don't care, and you get your way. It's quite entertaining, and quite liberating as opposed to driving defensively, stressing out, and trying to keep other people from stupidly running into you. God willing, I'll always have at least one car in the stable that is a "cream puff." I love cars and wish I could put in enough effort to keep them all in perfect shape. Unfortunately, life has other demands (even for die-hard car nuts!) than just living, breathing, driving, and caring for our car(s). My "nice car" in the stable doesn't go to the city. It doesn't even come out of the garage on most weekdays unless I'm on vacation (basically never). It's more a matter of principle than economics (don't get me wrong by that, I'm not a rich guy) -- I can't stand the thought of the car I just happily spent 6 hours detailing being subjected to a scrape or dent. Maybe it's because I come from very humble beginnings, and in my mind, if you can't keep a really nice car really nice, you probably don't deserve to have it. The interesting thing is that I don't try to keep a car great-looking to impress others or to "show up in style." I do it for myself; it's my one indulgence in life, and the only real manual labor (other than working at a computer keyboard) that I enjoy.

Second point: I don't need the comfort or room that the M5 so graciously offers. There are two other sedans that I can take if necessary. I've used the rear seats 3 times in 2 years. I drive it on the weekends to blow off steam and improve my driving skills, and as such I want an "active" experience where the bumps, noises, and raw experience of holding a fast pace (without endangering others) come through. Actually, the GT3 (not available to us chumps in the US ) would be even better in this regard than the Turbo. So would the GT2, but's that's out of my league financially.

Third point: The M5 really shines over 80MPH. That's when it comes alive. But I want to enjoy some of the tighter, curvier back roads around here when nobody else is on them. Although you can hold that kind of pace in the M5, it's not safe and I couldn't live with myself if I hurt someone else just because I was looking for a little fun. I really miss the steering and braking responsiveness of my old M3. But I've become enlightened to the virtues of torque, and the 996TT is one of the few true sports cars that offers heaping amounts of torque across the rev band.

Fourth point: You can improve the M5 via mods to a place where it offers nearly everything you could ever want. But it's become very clear to me that the cost of those mods will never be recovered. To me everything is an investment, even the things like cars that depreciate. People usually argue "it's a car, just enjoy it and don't think about that" but what if it also didn't cost you tons of money at the same time? In other words, I like a win-win scenario, and some depreciating assets hold their value better than others. I can't believe how well 96-97 Turbos have held their value. It floors me. The M5 hasn't held it's value as well as I would've liked. I don't suspect the 996TT will hold value as well as the 993TT has (Porsche is making more of these Turbos), but I have reason to believe it will not depreciate terribly quickly.

Whew, I guess I'll stop there for now. There's more that went into this decision, but I think you get the point.

[atomic80]

Does this apply to folks who kept their M5 and bought a 996TT or for those who sold their M5 and bought the 996TT?

[Bart Carter]

Originally posted by atomic80
Does this apply to folks who kept their M5 and bought a 996TT or for those who sold their M5 and bought the 996TT?

The original post was a question (tongue-in-cheek) for those who sold their M5 to get a TT.

Actually, I wanted to start off the new forum with an actual post. But we are getting some thought provoking posts.

[jinferno]

I switched because of the following reasons

1) spent over $10,000 trying to make an M5 into a 996TT (didn't work and lost this money when the car was sold)
2)got stuck in snow and had to abandon the M5 (prompted me to buy a Yukon Denali the next day-problem solved)
3)I'm single, 32yo, and no kids that I know of...don't need a 4 door sedan...need a toy
4) always wanted one

J

[A_Train]

I have car attention deficit disorder and read all the great things about the M5. So I got the car and it hit me that I had no need for 4 doors and the car felt too heavy, anyway. It just wasn't sporty enough for me and didn't get my heart pumping hard, so the M5 did not last long in the garage. I did not go straight to the 996TT -- went to that maybe 4 months after the M5 was gone.
- A-Train

[Deanger]

Went from 993TT to nothing sporty to M5.

Thought M5 was best of both worlds and was the ultimate "one car" car. And it is... but the thing of it... I can't settle on any one car.

Give me a big 4x4 one day, and a road-ripper the next.

And besides, Porsche for me will always be my true-love brand. I just think that's what a sportscar should be. From the earliest to the GT2.

So as Bibendum says "since life is short - whatever time we get is luck..." I decided to order a TT and resume the love-affair.

To me a TT and M5 have too much overlap. So bye-bye M5, you were amazing.

[Kevin Smith]

No doubt the M5 is the best 4-door sedan ever, but I traded mine for a 2001 996 C2 and now the C2 for a 2002 996 TT. I loved the M5, but it was a sedan, no matter how you figure it. The Porsche is a real sports car. You can even drive under most SUV's on the road. For me it as a completely different feel than the M5. I have two cars, so I wanted one that sat lower and really felt like a sports car. I love feeling every little nuisance (read bump) in the road.

Actually my daily driver now is an Audi Allroad. The best combination would have been to keep the M5 and get the Turbo. Oh well, with cars I never quite make the best decisions.