I've tried the Lightwave trial 9.6 and after studying some tutorials and of course downloading some of the figures from the below site...I just bought lightwave.  I've worked on trying to make V4 as realistic as I could with Carrara 7 pro with some degree of sucess, but after loading the figures at ir-models and being blown away by what is possible in lightwave...I'm sold!

beware, nudity on site.  He does charge an annual fee, but you get unlimited downloads and he updates the site with a new model a week so far...

http://www.ir-models.com/product_info.php?products_id=37

Carrara 7 pro just does not seem to have the tutorial support (Marks excellent tutorials are all thats out there) and power that Lightwave has and of course and the program doesnt seem as buggy as Carrara...