Folks who can afford products like the Stemme tend to like that new car smell. Plus Stemme's seem to hold their value well, which makes the upgrade even more appealing. In my view owning a Stemme is like owning a Supercar. I've heard the Stemme is a descent glider, but I've also heard the new one (12?) with the longer wings (26m?) doesn't perform much better than the original one. But so what? :-) It has longer wings! It is therefore cooler. And so on... This doesn't have to be entirely rational. See classic or sportscar owners, or airplane owners, etc.

I'm always surprised that Stemme owners never seem to enter contests such as the open nationals or sports class nationals. It would be fun to see how they "actually" perform even within the minimal level of objective measure that US OLC tasking still provides. Do Stemme's ever compete in Europe?

At the end of they day, if I lived out west, and just wanted to play glider pilot once in awhile and take friends for rides with ease, the Stemme is still the coolest motor glider on earth.

Looking forward to taking a ride in one someday soon.