Well some of the arguments of the mooney lovers were really convincing but now...
Let's see...
young and with half million in the bank? what would I buy?
Yeap the answer is a Cirrus...
The Cessna 400/350 look great and everything, but being a newbie one would better go for a simple operation aircraft (single lever cirrus) than to throttle/prop lever configuration in the Cessna... The cessna is a bit priecer though... IMHO looks better than the Cirrus too... BUT no chute!
The parachute is for peace of mind! (mid air collisions, loss of control, etc...) and any technical design fault in the aircraft...
NOTE: True is that's scares me more the thought of the wing coming out of the airplane or hitting some other guy than any other thing. Though CFIT and crash/t.o/landings are more common accidents
If you ask me where I would rather be in the case of an accident(forced landing)? I'd answer that's a hard question!
The aluminium frame can diform (within it's acceptable tension range and return to it's normal), can accumulate residual tension, stress, fatigue cracks but it's easier to fix and repair. The composites are more flammable, suffer delamination, don't like the Sun (Cirrus=hangar queen), like less to hit hard stuff like fences, obstructions, etc... (I was shocked when I saw how some cirrus looked like after their accidents).Composites are strong, but have some shorter life span compared to metals, they can behave little brittle materials. BUT as engineering progresses we will see more and more advance materials in the construction with better performance... Engineering is always evolving and Cirrus represents that...
Glass cockpit are cool, if you are geeky! I don't think that it's hard to learn and get used to them & as we give way to new generation, glass cockpit won't be more than exercising flight sim in a real environment! Youngsters learn faster... was about the same discussion when computer came and some loved the good all typewriter! LOL! Before unmanned aircraft take over there needs to be a transition... That transition is Auto pilot fly-o-matic aircraft. Sit, enjoy and relax... TCAS, weather radars, gps, etc...
I'm not saying I agree, and that piloting should become that but truth is that piloting eventually will...
It's true that Cirrus have a good marketing, and if you ask any young guy that was exposed to this trend... most would take a Cirrus or any glass stuff instead of any and better metalo stuff... It's an Iphone of the air... like or not... can be that there is better, but nothing appeals or seduces more...
P.S: And flying old metal planes scares the
out of most non aviation people, so passengers love Cirrus too.