Good point hughes500... let me guess what you fly!!
down here in NZ, most 500s are stuck with the old 50-60 gal tank, so 2 hour hops everywhere, whereas most JRs have the range extenders... Thats the difference im referring to. in NZ 2 hr hops are not too much of a problem, as you go past a few pumps in 2 hrs, but in OZ or Canada, different story.
Now some NZ 500 owner is going to come on here and bleat that they have a fargo tank, well it would be the first one i have seen, and i have seen a few.
Just saying that you have to compare apples with apples, an example of 4 normal sized people and 3/4 a tank of gas is really hard to make comparisons about. I took 4 really large people plus myself over 9000' a couple of days ago in an old BII with the small tail rotor, no problem at all, and i have been in that same helicopter at about 13,500' full of pax.
But the guy wants a new machine so the JR is out. and sorry, whoever said it, but we won't all be flying them one day! you may be, but i won't.
ps, i may give the 500 boys a bit of grief sometimes, but I'd rather fly them than anything beginning with R...