I recently played a game with my other half when driving on a long stretch of motorway. The game was thus – choose a car, any car, and I’ll attempt to guess the value. She would then check to see if I was close. We’d then discuss the merits of said motor. All harmless fun and all geared to pass the many miles that little bit faster than they would otherwise have gone.
It was all quite good fun at first until things took a more serious tone. This was down to the fact that my nearest and dearest not only desires but probably will need a new car in the next year or so. Her car is aged, noisy and not as far up on the Euro NCAP scale as I would like. The question naturally then arose as to which car she would like to sit her posterior in as the named driver as we drove past countless hatchbacks, BMW 3 series, Audi A4s etc etc.
The car that was picked? A Porsche Cayenne. I correctly guestimated that the model year (obviously mileage was an unknown quantity) would place the car roughly in the 26 thousand pound mark. 26 thousand pounds! A little bit beyond our budget I’m afraid. But we then discussed what the lowest price Cayenne goes for and it shocked me to discover that a 2005 car with loads of kit and the 4.5 litre petrol can be purchased for under 10 grand with just over 80,000 on the clock. Yes, it will drink petrol more than I drink coffee, but what a slice of car to own!
This got me on to why my beautiful girlfriend would pick such a road tank in the first place. Road presence? The Porsche badge? Space inside for the kids? Style and performance? It turned out to be none of these things in fact. It was BIG. That was it. One simple, three letter word that summed up what struck a chord with her.
So there you are car fans and manufacturers alike. Whilst small cars are popular, large cars will be popular with a certain percentage of the population forever because they look BIG when blasting down the motorway. Have I bought one yet though? Nope. I’m holding out for something a little cheaper with better fuel economy. It’ll still be big(ish) whatever I choose. Got to keep everyone happy!
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