Interesting thread to read through. There are so many factors that could play into this based on geographical location, cost of housing, and a host of other factors. People make assumptions about others, period. In most situations those assumptions mean jack **** to me.

To answer the OP's question, yes there are circumstances where I avoid taking the 911. Work is one example.

 

Same as a cactus.

 

I don't know your wife, but I like her.

 

Was just running around this morning in the 911 and had to head to a shop where I occasionally chat with the owner, but had no idea he was a car guy.

I had stopped there last weekend (happens to be right near where the park where the local porsche-club show was), so one of his employees must have told him I just got a 911. (They joked that my car's color -- Miami Blue -- matches their store colors pretty closely, and I should slap one of their stickers on my car and use it as their new service vehicle.)

Anyway, when I saw the owner today, he was all excited to see it, and we went out and we started talking cars.

He expressed a similar sentiment. We talked about the cars he has (an MB AMG GT, C8 Corvette, etc...), and he said, "none of my employees, and none of my customers, except you, know that I have these cars. I am super careful, almost self-conscious, about who I tell and when and where I drive them."

I know we buy them to drive and enjoy, but I think it's natural to have some awareness of our surroundings and the audience.

Anyway, good talk.

 

Yes unfortunately I think about it. Just this week my boss asked me if they were paying me too much when he was told the 911 in the parking lot was mine, and a colleague said " I hate that car".


​​​​​​I spent most of my money on cars and motorcycles, the rest I just wasted.

 

I feel the same way, to a point. I'll choose when to drive it or not, depending on where I'm going and what I'm doing. I have many other vehicles to choose from, for their seperate purposes. A sedan and a wagon for my daily commute, a pickup for the heavy hauls..then the 991 for the fun stuff.

There is one thing I don't really care for while driving my 991. EVERYONE tries to race or mess around on the road or highway. Where I live, it's mostly the lower end modified cars and their associated "car meets"..so it's not even worth the time fooling around anyways. So the brainless kid, driving the *insert commonly modified car here*, thinks he's hot when I tool around. And it's not like my car doesn't stand out. It's a lava orange GTS...

But I do all the things in my car, as I can. My wife and I take it on vacation, I do the cars and coffees, I do grocery's, I do runs to the parts store, you name it. I try to keep it a year round car as much as I can.

The one thing I will say, the actual children are watching. That's how I got hooked on 911's growing up. You had guys ring them out to redline on a pull, rev it on occation, and just drive them around to be seen. I don't think that's over the top showing off..but it is, in a sense, showing off and sometimes that's good...it gives inspiration.

 

@Contadino re: "Yes unfortunately I think about it. Just this week my boss asked me if they were paying me too much when he was told the 911 in the parking lot was mine, and a colleague said " I hate that car".

Without knowing your situation specifically, just hearing that, that's a pretty good sign you need to quit that job and go start your own thing.

 

For me it's the gun club. When in Rome kinda thing. I drive my truck when I go there. It's a different mentality there and some old closed minded people. I go there to relax, not get dirty looks from the old gaurd.

 

nah drive it.

I moved to LA from Prior Lake 11 years ago. I know and feel what you’re saying. But as I’m older now and go home, all my high school friends are successful business owners and have Hurracans, R34s and more. Be proud of your place in life. I buy and drive my cars for me. Nobody else. I don’t even get looks with my car other than the Infiniti boys always trying to race.

 

I look and dress 1/2 my age, so I'm the opposite, sometimes I need to low key take the Porsche just to signal I'm not a hoodlum.

 

I'm old enough that I don't give a damn what anyone thinks about the car I'm driving. I drive my Targa everywhere, unless I need the added capacity better handled by one of our other vehicles. Though I do factor parking into the decision. If there's not going to be parking that's reasonably safe from damage then I might not drive it. Parallel parking downtown is less than ideal. I'll walk farther and pay for parking that's less likely to result in someone dinging it.

 

The only thing that factors in whether or not I drive the 911 is the parking situation.

If parking in a questionable location I will take my E63, or if I am expecting to valet the car (there is 1 exception where I will valet).

At work and among my friends, my car is definitely not the nicest, so it does not matter to me what they think..... they all take pity on me that I am not driving a GT Porsche, Ferrari, Lambo, McLaren etc.

 

It’s interesting people think I’m rich for owning a 10 yr old 911 when they own a $100k pickup truck they bought just to pull their $70k 5th wheel camper.

When I was searching for my car I was open about it with a coworker of mine. He’s a car guy and seemed to enjoy the car shopping journey…he would send me links to for-sale 911’s. Then when I told him I found one and put money down he acted surprised. Then when I closed the deal he got salty. Bitched about money constantly and soon quit to chase a higher salary. I suspect he figured it was all for fun and I didn’t have the resources to actually pull it off.

Bought my car and didn’t tell any family or friends about it. Didn’t seem to be a way to mention that without it sounding like bragging.

My parents saw it when they visited about a year after I bought. Surprisingly they were pretty dang excited for me…I thought they’d think it was a foolish waste of money. About 2 years later on a camping trip with a buddy that it came up. He was kind of annoyed I didn’t send him pictures from day 1. Apparently he thought that was awesome as hell and would have liked to share in the excitement.

 

Nice. Yeah, you can never tell. Some people will surprise you, in both good and not-so-good ways.

 

After I bought the Targa a friend commented he 'crashed one of those against the wall every year, paying for private school tuition'. His wife was less than pleased to hear him put it that way. Theirs is the one place I generally try to avoid driving the Targa, if just to spare him getting that dirty look again from his wife.