If you already own Vue  and have 1000$ to throw down the drain, get Modo 501. You will end up with an application everybody is praising (I have seen some video tutorials and it looks really kick-ass, it was on my buying list had I failed to learn Blender).

If you need a modeler and can wait for ngons and sculpting, get Blender 2.56 (it is coming out of beta in just weeks). 0$.

If you need ngons, try Wings3D. 0$, so easy that you learn it watching a pair of video tutorials.

If you need NURBS, MoI (300$ ?) or Bonzai3D (495$, SketchUp on steroids).

If you need sculpting, ZBrush (500$ ?) or 3DCoat (400$ ?).

If you want to use Poser content, get Poser 8 (250$ ?) or Studio (0$/150$).

If you need plants, Arbaro (0$), ngPlant (0$), IvyGenerator (0$) or XFrog (300$ ?).

B.t.w. Blender+Wings3D+Poser8+StudioAdv+Bonzai3D is about 900$...

Carrara is a textbook example of a programs that could have been a juggernaut but wasn't. DAZ is leaving it behind functionality wise (there is not even a LuxRender exporter in the works, Poser users are better off with Pose2Lux), putting all its interests in Studio. Another example is their decision to put in a half-baked support for dynamics (which nearly useless) and ignoring request to add scripting.

DAZ cares so little of users, their needs and their opinions that they don't even remove from their forum posts of people discussing programs alternative to Carrara or Hexagon; compare this with Luxology customer care (I saw an incredible thread in their forum: somebody described a Modo bug and a few hours later one of the developers responded telling that there was a fixed build available... DAZ doesn't even answer tens of requests about whether a program is still in active development or not).

The only program sensible to buy from DAZ is Studio (the only one they really care about), well knowing that, when you have added all the plugins to replicate Poser 8  out-of-the-box functionality you are roughly in Poser Pro price range.

GIMP 2.7.4, Inkscape 0.48, Genetica 3.6 Basic, FilterForge 3 Professional, Blender 2.61, SketchUp 8, PoserPro 2012, Vue 10 Infinite, World Machine 2.3, GeoControl 2