Do all dentists really drive Porsches? A quick survey – just for fun.

What does your car say about you?

There is an urban legend that a higher percentage of dentists own Porsches than any other profession. Its origins are from some spurious research done when Porsche were selling their little 924 model back in the late 1970s and 1980s. The same research suggested that vets preferred SAABs and tried to ascribe various brand characteristics to several other professions.

Even as recently as 2018, ‘The Wealthy Dentist’ online magazine (admittedly, that publication is based in the USA) was proclaiming a survey that concluded 61% of dentists had owned a sports car, including 24% who had owned a Porsche.

What the Audi dealer told us

Nothing – they didn’t reply to us so are clearly selling quite enough Audi’s already.

What the multi-brand dealer told us

Nothing – they didn’t reply to us so are clearly selling quite enough cars already.

But a quick survey of the UK dentists we know personally suggests that a 12-year-old Toyota Avensis in metallic grey is just as likely to be their wheels of choice, and Porsches definitely aren’t as common as they (allegedly) used to be.

So, have Porsches become out of reach of today’s generation of dentists? Has the profession become less ‘flash’?  Or do dentists now have more practical needs?

Can you remember the Audi A4 advert from 1995? How much has that affected the way dentists think of themselves?

We asked a Porsche dealer what proportion of their cars are bought by dentists. And now that Porsche offers much more than their 911 super cars and 924 entry models, what models do dentists favour?

Phil Wong of Dick Lovett Porsche Bristol told us that they don’t hold records of owners’ occupations. However, he does have one client who is a dentist who bought a Porsche Cayenne (which is mostly used by his wife).

So we also had a quick look around the car parks of several dental practices.

Audis (closely related to Porsches) seem popular making up 20% of our sample, especially the TT sports car (which competes directly with the Porsche Boxster and Cayman). Again, a couple of Audi Q7s (competes with the Porsche Macan and Cayenne models) were also present. Does that mean that dentists have left sports cars behind, or moved their favour to less ‘flashy’ brands? If so, how does that account for the two black BMWs we found?

And then there’s Volkswagen. Even more understated than Audi, but also closely related. The Golf GTi set the standard for the ‘Hot Hatch’ – fun to drive and as quick as a Porsche in real-world traffic, yet perfectly capable of dragging home the weekly shopping, and even the odd lump of ‘white goods’.

We also found Jaguars, Volvos, Land Rovers (and Range Rovers), Lexus and even more than one grey Toyota.

So come on, tell us what you drive and why. Fill in our quick (for fun) SurveyMonkey questionnaire – we’ll publish the results in the New Year.

Click here to take our SURVEY

And feel free to take part if you are a nurse, hygienist, technician or other dental professional.

Cary has worked worked with other nurses who drive Fiestas, Audi A1s and Mercedes Benz A-class, hygienists who drive BMWs and technicians who drive Volvos – but put us straight!

What car should I drive?

We can tell you lots of things, particularly about Pearl Dental Software. Contact us by email or call 0116 275 9995.

However, we can’t tell you what you should drive as we can’t decide ourselves. But the marketing team at BHA Software drive the following;

• Ben – Lexus IS 200 (great on the motorway)
• Charlotte – Mercedes A-Class hatchback (cheap to run around town and a neighbour was getting rid of it!)
• Chris – Mercedes C180 Estate (comfortable long-distance load-lugger)
• Cary – Toyota CHR (he’s called Alfred – what else do you need to know?)