Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way, but perhaps try this. It's sometimes worked for me;
a) Ask the wife which car she'd most like to drive on her daily drives, if it's going to be her car. Discuss other uses such as canoe tripping.
b) Help her in a decision by arranging test drives, consumer reports etc.
c) Respect her choice. If it doesn't ideally suit other uses then just deal with it. Easy fixes are easier than you'd (over)think.
1- My wife once fell in love with a high mileage (argh) out of production model (oh gawd) faded red (think pink) very small car. Try as I might to dissuade her from her choice she went for it anyway; maybe I didn't try hard enough. Turned out to be an awesome buy. And tho' the tiny roof
and short spaced racks barely accommodated the family canoe, with fastidious tying down it worked like a dream every time.
2- I once bought a big ol' car for her, reasoning it would be the safest thing on the road. Previously the pride and joy of a local farmer (Sunday drives to church); all leather, power everything, a rear wheel drive tank of a car, it was like driving a living room. Actually, I wish our living room was so well appointed. She hated it. Despised it. The words that came out of her mouth isn't fit to print. Mind you this car did fish tail at every opportunity regardless of the best rubber I installed. The killer was that it decided where and when it would start. That was never convenient. We never did trip with it, despite the copious amount of rack room on the roof, it repeatedly opted out of starting on those mornings. Eventually I agreed with her that I'd made a hasty purchase, and parted ways with it. It's probably running fine to this day, provided you only run up to the barn and back, or to church on Sundays.
Best of luck whatever you do.
a) Ask the wife which car she'd most like to drive on her daily drives, if it's going to be her car. Discuss other uses such as canoe tripping.
b) Help her in a decision by arranging test drives, consumer reports etc.
c) Respect her choice. If it doesn't ideally suit other uses then just deal with it. Easy fixes are easier than you'd (over)think.
1- My wife once fell in love with a high mileage (argh) out of production model (oh gawd) faded red (think pink) very small car. Try as I might to dissuade her from her choice she went for it anyway; maybe I didn't try hard enough. Turned out to be an awesome buy. And tho' the tiny roof
and short spaced racks barely accommodated the family canoe, with fastidious tying down it worked like a dream every time.
2- I once bought a big ol' car for her, reasoning it would be the safest thing on the road. Previously the pride and joy of a local farmer (Sunday drives to church); all leather, power everything, a rear wheel drive tank of a car, it was like driving a living room. Actually, I wish our living room was so well appointed. She hated it. Despised it. The words that came out of her mouth isn't fit to print. Mind you this car did fish tail at every opportunity regardless of the best rubber I installed. The killer was that it decided where and when it would start. That was never convenient. We never did trip with it, despite the copious amount of rack room on the roof, it repeatedly opted out of starting on those mornings. Eventually I agreed with her that I'd made a hasty purchase, and parted ways with it. It's probably running fine to this day, provided you only run up to the barn and back, or to church on Sundays.
Best of luck whatever you do.
Last edited:
