Because such an argument could be leveled at all of the cars the SL65 competes with, or indeed all cars that cost such large amounts of money. I can't honestly say a Bentley Arnage is a better value than 10 Honda Accords. Look at the Corvette, for that matter. For Z06 money, I could probably buy a Mazdaspeed 3, a Honda S2000 and a Mini Cooper S. Compared to some of its competitors, (Aston Martin DBS for example), the SL65 Black isn't particularly expensive anyways.
Besides, the Black Edition all but replaces a car in Mercedes' lineup that cost nearly 3 times as much.
I think price should
always be under consideration. Especially when you are comparing two cars with wildly different price tags.
And your C6 Z06 vs. MS3, S2000 and MCS comparison is perfectly valid.
Here's the real crux of my argument: the law of diminishing returns apply when you start talking about really expensive
anything.
$5,000 will buy you a junker. It may run fine and look okay, but you're not exactly 'living the dream'.
$15,000 will buy you a fairly average car. A four-year old Honda Accord with a four banger; a five-year old Mk IV Jetta with 65k on the clock ; maybe a tired S2000 or E36 M3 with high mileage or a salvage title. Are you getting
three times the car for your money? Yeah, most probably.
Compared to, say an 1995 E36 M3 with 120,000 miles, is a brand new C6 Z06 FIVE times the car?? I think you can make a pretty fair argument that it is.
But is the 911 GT2 twice as good as a Z06? Is the SL Black or 430 Scuderia three times better? Those propositions are much harder to justify. Because there is a sliding scale. After a point, the amount of car you get back for your money starts to rapidly drop off.
The perception of where that sliding scale starts is completely dependent on whom you ask. If you're Kobe Bryant or Paris Hilton you probably don't give a rat's ass what an SL Black costs. But for
most normal people, $225,000 is 50% to 100%
the cost of their homes.
It's very easy to have a cavalier attitude about what a cool car costs when you're just voting on a car forum. But think about it realistically for a minute: is the SL Black
really better than having a ZR1 (to crush anything you see on the road), PLUS an E63 Wagon (for a daily driver), PLUS a Lotus Elise (for a track toy)?
I'm gonna go with no, at least for now.
M
Did I miss something? Who said I would buy either? Even if I was rich. I thought the whole point for this was cars as they are not cars that we are going to buy?
