Some brands like Hermes, Rolex, etc. also require you to establish a “relationship” with them to acquire their most popular items (Birkin or Kelly bags, stainless steel watches). This entails a lengthy purchase history, and some schmoozing of your assigned sales associate doesn’t hurt either. Unless you’re some well known figure, just waltzing into a boutique with a suitcase full of cash won’t get you what you want to buy on your first visit.
Other brands are catching on. I hear Porsche (or at least some dealerships) have started gatekeeping 911s this way.
…on the straight away of lap one. The top trim model 3 performance best time around the green hell is like 9 minutes. There are factory Porsches that will do it in under 7.
This is a very ironic comment to have made in a thread about how cheap things aren’t as good as they seem once you look a bit deeper.
Even their models that share platforms with “lesser” brands in the corporate stable go through a lot to differentiate them.
But if you don’t care about cars or enjoy driving, then all of it is a moot point and probably meaningless to you, and you might as well enjoy a Toyota Camry and call it a day.
Depends on where you drive, dude. I spend more time on mountain roads than highways.
And, also, if you like driving, and sometimes drive for fun, curves are way more fun than freeways. None of this has anything to do with supercars, either. My boring mom-car has more than enough power to merge safely. It's (surprisingly, to most people) faster (acceleration and top-speed) and (impressively - ICE tech advanced so much) more fuel-efficient than my almost thirty year old Miata. But, obviously, I enjoy the latter 1000x more than the former.
I guess this makes me a car geek. <shrug> That's fine. I do enjoy driving my super-basic, entry-level sportscar. I have less than zero interest in supercars.
Mercedes and other manufacturers do this as well. While it's arguably an extreme example, you can't purchase the Mercedes Benz Project One hypercar unless you have a history of purchasing their low-volume, extremely expensive cars (AMG Black Series, etc).
Other brands are catching on. I hear Porsche (or at least some dealerships) have started gatekeeping 911s this way.