Deutsch

In such an ever changing industry, it's hard to pick one car and truly love it, as cars have become more like computers(especially given that they're run mostly by computers w/ software upgrades every 2,000 miles), once you buy the latest car, some minor but markedly big improvement is made the next year and your car in some way becomes obsolete, or largely undesirable in the way of reliability issues, etc. In addition there are design tweaks here and there and so on, cars have become more like pieces of fashion on wheels, and EVERYONE is looking(you guys should come and see my city, it's rediculous!!!!). Brands are a whole nother thing, they all have different characteristics in design traits, philosiphy and so on. Given that none of these brands are exact carbon copies of one another and that they can't possibly be all things to all people, there's some breach of compromise between the product and the consumer, product always winning out. Take for instance an MB S-class, while I may find it to be very attractive in its design inside and out, I find many of the electronic gizmos worrisome and uncessary, but there's nothing I can do to delete this feature and opt for something such as a mechanical based sports suspension from AMG. Simply because such an option just doesn't exsist, so I either compromise and buy the car for what it is or don't buy it at all and look for something that isn't an S-class but something entirely different. Thus I miss out on all of the qualitites that I enjoyed so much about the S-class and I avoid dealing w/ all of the idiocracies associated w/ many of the cars features. So inbetween liking this and liking that, it is VERY hard to have ONE favorite brand or one favorite car, hence my teetering every now and then. You guys have to admit that you're not entirely assured of your loyalty to this and that brand or this and that car? This may just have been about the most pointless post ever made, but it's 10:41pm after a long day, working the 9-5(got off earlier actually) - so yeh, consider this a mental fart.

Centurion

You are making a very good point concerning the people favoring one brand. Although I'm commited to Porsche I have one in a while been disloyal and favored other brands when it comes to a specific segment. Since Porsche don't produce very comfortable cars I have to seek after a lovable luxury car else where and of cource I turn to MB which is my second favorite brand. Still I would only turn to MB if I'm after a comfortable luxury car, if I want a sporty car I would turn to BMW and if I would want a family car my choise would be Audi. So you could probably see that I'm quite mixed, the truth if that all brands have their own nisch and there isn't one brand that can be the best in every segment.

Brookside

Yeah, I think this is a good post...I stopped reading GCF before it closed down for this very reason...that often threads devolved into battles between members hijacking the topic to defend their favorite make of automobiles- usually at the expense of any intelligent discourse.
I've owned Audi's, BMW's and love both brands for very different reasons. I also think Subaru makes some incredible cars.
If there is one brand that I look at first, it's BMW, for engineering and cutting edge design. I like that BMW's are visually "too busy". And I like that their designs are polarizing.
Stuttgarter is right- cars say a lot about who you are- and the manufacturers know it.

The Artist

GCF got realy nasty at the end and so did this forum we had for a breif moment before GCZ... i still feel that we all are pretty laid back.. and the occasionall discussions that occure are often civilized..
So i think we have a good balance now.. and should do everything to mentain it..
And new members as existing ones should understand that this is GERMAN CAR ZONE.. and we are GERMAN car fans.. so if you wanna be here you gotta keep that in mind..
Beacuse if you love a certain brand so much that everything else is worthless in your eyes.. you should seek for a specific car brand forum.. and hang with others that share your mentaility...

Deutsch

I appreciate those of you that have been able to understand my thoughts. I couldnt' agree more as to the reason why we are all here; We love German cars. I think we most definately should bring this into light whenever things start to get out of hand when people start defending their positions on anything brand or car related. It's not a lot to ask, its just asking others to be reasonable w/ their words. One example, an avatar is an avatar. LoL, some take them way too seriously and start in on the other person about why they have a different avatar of another car from another brand... all that matters, is that whatever CAR is in that avatar..... is GERMAN.

ZicZachZo

Hmmm... Well personally I find it ridiculous to choose one brand and think that all of it's cars are superior. I love Mercedes Benz, but I would never buy a C class over a 3 series. I think it just comes down to personal taste in the end. But for those people that think and try to point out at every chance that their fav brand is superior in whatever way is just ridiculous. And in this day and age, you don't really have many things that can really make or break a purchase. I think today more than ever cars are more on an even plane than they ever have been in terms of available features. You can get a navigation system in a Honda Civic, radar cruise control in a Toyota Sienna. The lines have been blurred. And I think in the case of the germans there is nothing in terms of feature content that separates them and makes one superior from the other one. They all can be had with AWD etc. I think more than anything it comes down to styling, and preference over the look or feel.

SDNR

When I joined GermanCarFans originally under a different name (not Rnds Either...mysterious eh?) I considrred myself a Mercedes fan above all else - I'm still a big Merc fan, although I have been accused of being far too critical of Mercedes by some members who don't believe that I actually am even a Mercedes fan at all - LOL. However, over the past couple of years my appreciation for Audi has grown tremendously - I have always appreciated BMW and Porsche too.

Maserati

exactly same situation here , Roberto I think we have many things in common LOL

EDIT: stuttgarter, thanx for this great post .. I couldn't agree more , as of car becoming a fashion in ur city , please pay us a visit in UAE and u'll feel the pain of seeing exotic cars on a daily basis .. poor people are suffering here ..

Imhotep Evil

Don't know what to say.
I've been a german car fan since I can remeber.
Around here we've had (and still have) a huge respect for german products for more than a hundred years. Mercedes Benz and BMW were actually highly apreciated since the 1930s around here (think 540K and 328).
Man, I still remeber when I first saw the 993 Turbo, or that blocky headlights 5er witch was perfection incarnated as far as sedans go.
Well I like most german cars.
I think it's almost biological, you just can't love at least one german car and/or brand.