For my "missions" I take the 172 if I'm alone or trying to build time, but keep current now in the Cirrus for bringing non flying folks where speed and comfort are big ticket items. I appreciate the Cirrus for what it does in that regards, makes my passengers feel safe and comfortable, and it's honestly a pretty cool plane to fly. I like how my right hand easily positions right by the fuel, flaps, throttle, mixture, GPS, etc. It's a smart layout. My left hand I have the control stick with its functions. From what I've sat in the interior layout is superior to other machines. Now, full disclosure, I haven't sat in a Mooney but just from knowing my non pilot pax they wouldn't be as comfortable in one. The Mooney has a lot of features that are cool and would appeal to me. They have a timeless "Porsche-esq" classic design and they're fast and sip fuel, and apparently built ridiculously well. So they have a lot going for it. I wish there was a club I could rent one from so I could see how my non pilot pax would fair in one
No matter whose price list you're looking at, it's still effing RIDICULOUS.
Oh come on. A million bucks for a 4 seater airplane
^but ultimately, I completely agree. This bounds on extortion. Don't get me wrong, these planes are CRAZY performance machines.. but they are still single engine 4 person (sorta) planes. Personally speaking if I had just won the lottery and had a cool $1.2M in cash (after paying out the taxes, my other liens, etc.) I would save half for maintenance and upkeep (so $600K) and spend the other $600K on one of these. Note, these will NOT be everyone's cup of tea, but hey it's my lotto millions so I get to spend them how I want!
https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/1356425/1978-aerostar-702p
https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/18417445/2001-beechcraft-58-baron
https://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/1453279/1984-cessna-421c
A turboprop or jet would be hard to squeeze out on that kind of budget, especially if I wanted it to be "nice." So no King Airs or TBMs... but these piston twins above are nice rides and each have something special going for it. In addition to being twins and retracts one of them is crazy fast, the other I've always seen as "king of GA twins" (the Baron), and the third just seems like it would have crazy utility. But the 421 is at the bottom of the list for a reason...
Having said that. If I had something like $2M to play with, I would still get one of the twins above but I would buy myself an SR22 for my burger runs. The SR22 would be much cheaper to operate than those twins above so wouldn't need as big of a cash reserve on it, and it would be a very fun plane for for the two person hops within 300NM.
But this has gone from somewhat potentially attainable at some point in my life to pure fantasy by that point LOL