[tony20009]

FWIW, the upgrade path I'd suggest for a young adult would differ from the one I'd suggest for a young person with a family. In the latter case, risk mitigation and a view toward the future would play a greater factor and thus I'd suggest that the best upgrade path is to chill for the time being and when it's time to let go of the 335i, just buy an AMG. Dumping money into a 5 year old car that's already no doubt lost a few horses probably isn't the best option for such a person whereas it's not a terrible approach for someone having fewer responsibilities.

In general, I reason that if a poster states something in their post, there must be a reason, so I try to give due consideration to that fact and offer a response tailored to the poster and the things they deemed relevant (by virtue of stating them in the first place) rather than just blithely offering a pat answer. As for my initial questions, they were just that questions, not accusations. If you were to answer, simply saying you meant, for example, parents and siblings I would fully understand from where you are coming with your inquiry. I wasn't always old and settled enough to join the AARP.

To give you a better sense of what I mean by tailoring my answer, I'll share a story from my deep past. About 10 years ago, a client of mine approached me asking me to draw up a proposal to manage a project for them to design, build and implement a software solution to a problem they were having. They suggested that in their estimation the project should run around $15 million. I thanked them for honoring me and my firm with a sole-source opportunity and then I went back to discuss the project with a couple of my partners and a few technical experts in the firm. After a week of discussions, we came to the conclusion that what they wanted us to do wouldn't actually be the best solution for them for it would only partially address the symptoms of the problem and hardly at all eliminate the problem.

When the time came to deliver the proposal, I simply told the client that I and my partners didn't want to be engaged to do what it is they asked for for we didn't think it the right choice and we didn't see how it would be -- in the big picture -- a good use of their resources. It didn't take great powers of observation to tell that was not at all what they wanted to hear. That goes double for my client contact/friend who had been in a bit of an internal rivalry with one of his peers over how to resolve their problem and who had gotten the go ahead to pursue his approach. Although we refused to propose on what was initially requested, we did propose an entirely different solution -- albeit at $3 million more in fees and having a somewhat longer timeline and one that they had at that point not considered much -- that we thought would be the right approach for them.

Two weeks later they signed the deal and we started the project. When it was over, they were effusive in their gratitude for our having considered their situation and not just jumped to offer them a proposal that would, in the end, been little more than a waste of money. Sure, I could have just taken the $15 million and given them what they asked for, but the level of integrity it would have taken to do that would have been of no use to me in the years ahead. Service providers succeed because they consider what's really in the best interests of the patron and respond accordingly.

BTW, my friend at the client still came out smelling of roses for even though his original idea proved the wrong approach, he'd enjoined me and my partners rather than his colleague's preferred professional service providers who it was felt (I can't say if it would have been so) would have taken the $15 million and gone forward.