Quote - ...I don't see anything in 3dsmax renderings that can't be done in Vue or Carrara for that matter...

There are TONS of rendering/shader issues that 3ds max can do that Carrara can't.  I don't really know what you are talking about.
I don't have Vue.
Max9 ships with MentalRay, I find it hard to believe that MR would be seriously compared to the C5 render engine.
We won't discuss modelling capabilities, or anything else.
I don't want to sound as if I'm cheerleading for Max; but I'd just hate to see somebody interested in taking up 3ds Max be put off of it by that sort of mis-information. It isn't one of the industry leaders for no reason.

It is true that it has a steep learning curve. That is because there is so much that it can do.
My advice to the OP is to try the free 30-day demo of Max9 and decide for yourself. It is the full version of the application, no features deactivated, AFAIK.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=5972446

Friends don't let friends use booleans.