John,

I must say there is an enormous amount of truth to what you say. I have had my 911 for 19 years and have spent my fair share of time either under... or watching others under...it. It has been dismantled, repainted, and reassembled twice during its life with me. Parts are ridiculous, the motor while easy to remove, seems to come out far to often, and despite what has become a symbiotic relationship with the orange beast, I find myself looking at the turbo & then driving the 500E. Overall I sense the 500E may actually be the quicker car start to finish and far more user friendly. The 500E is a truly amazing automobile and already I may actually like it better, but for the few moments, under full boost, with the tires breaking loose, the quirky "understeer...ops now oversteer", and the tail end dancing while you grit your teeth to catch it, I find it hard to say, "this really isn't much fun!". However, when the turbo is on a roll back going to the shop, I quickly remember, why I like the 500E better. My heart will always belong to "The Toy", my intelligence has to concede to the Benz.

300D Turbo 265,000 miles "Bennie" (sold)
300E 145,000 miles "Maggie"
74' 911S/Carerra Targa 3.0 Crankfired Turbo "The Toy"
380SE 158,000 miles "The Battlestar"
92' 500E (My daughter has not yet named this one)

She also footnotes: while the obnoxious orange, top down ride, is "cool" in the summer, the heated seats in the 500E "rule" in the winter.
As they say...
To each "their" own.

Crash

__________________
dwight