Are all charge-repulsed carbocations really unstable? Dramatic difference in reactivities of benzyl- and p -methoxybenzyl halides in benzene

Two distinct reaction mechanisms are proposed for the reactions of1,5 and6 with nucleophiles as against those of11,12 and16. The former set undergoes the reactions through carbocation type intermediates2 and3 as efficiently as the stable carbocation4 does, even under similar and very mild conditions. The compounds from the latter group do not form the carbocations under the same conditions and undergo only direct substitution by strong nucleophiles.