You have to be kidding to think a new gringo here driving that kind of car is the same as a local.
I see tons of expensive cars of course in SD and Santiago driven by Dominicans not idiot gringos.
Um, no, I'm not kidding. Not remotely.
You must know some of the people that live inside Sea Horse Ranch, Casa Linda, Panarama Village, Hispaniola village, Ocean Village, etc. There are Porsche's and some very, very expensive toys here--just on the north coast.
Some people here will remember David Jennings? He lived in Sosua, drove one of the only Porsche Turbo Cayenne's here, also drove a brand new $20,000 Ducati, the only TM 530 on the island, the only Twin-Turbo custom made "Rattletrap" Jeep that he paid $80,000 just in taxes to get here, plus another $100,00 to have it built in Florida. And then he also had the only custom signed Valentino Rossi Yamaha R1 that cost around $20,000, and then, wait...he saw my Supermoto and scooter and went out and bought those too!!
I have pictures of all of his toys, and i drove most of them as well.
Anyway, David Jennings loved Haitian women and took frequent trips to the Haitian border, and every other poor village his girls came from, in colossally expensive cars, jeeps, and motorcycles. He lived here for about 20-years (Hedge Fund manager), and never had any issue, whatsoever. And neither have I.
So, again, I don't know where all of this miss-information and fear comes from? The rumors grow and grow here until they take a new life of their own!
Where do they originate, i have no idea. But this island is one of the safest islands to travel around on, and i do it almost weekly--and I've been doing it my entire life--and i've yet to have a problem.
Could i have a problem tomorrow? Sure. But then we're talking about 30+years of traveling this island without one incident. And the same goes for my friends and family.
Where does this fear of traveling around in a nice car and thinking that you will be targeted come from?