Car shopping with the wife.....

Where's a gun to the head smilie when you need it?

But seriously. I try to explain to her not to get her heart set on the first vehicle she test drives before she test drives anything else and she does anyways.

I went with my buddy and his wife last weekend looking for her.......she cared more about the color and the touchscreen than the fact she was looking at a horrid Journey.

will this fit the bill???

It's somewhat simple for me. Double wishbone Honda. Down side is at this point, that's a last gen Accord or TSX. Add in the fact that her car has probably 4 years left in it, anything she wants will be 7-10 years old.

My wife and I were at a dealer with the salesperson. Standing next to an Expedition and a Miata. My wife asks the salesperson if they have anything between those two vehicles. I screamed out that EVERYTHING IS BETWEEN THOSE TWO!!! We left the dealership.

Ahh, car shopping for the significant other, I'm not sure there's many things in the world more frustrating..... My SO grew up with a dad who's a mechanic, and then has been with me, a mechanic and has absorbed plenty about cars over the years and is still impossible.

She gets a bee in her bonnet about wanting a new car and the ensuing conversation plays out as follows.

Me, so what do you think you want.

Her, I don't know,

Me, What do you like the look of?

Her, ummm, (insert random E36 M3box, something totally out of budget or something obscure) or "I don't know"

Me, OK...

I then list off reasons why it might not be the best option, or potential problems. Or if I get "I don't know", I ask what she wants from a car.... Again I get me with "I don't know"

Its usually followed by her telling me not to worry about it, or that I hate everything or that I'm being difficult.

I remind her that I'll be the one who has to fix it and that if she didn't value my opinion then why ask. Or I tell her to go ask her father and see what he thinks.... Yeah, fun conversation.

I explain to her whatever she gets has to be reliable as I care for her and don't want to see her stranded. still, im the bad guy

At least now she's slowly starting to see sense, but still... Aaarrgggghhhh!

Me: I just discovered the Saab 9-7x. i'm going to find you a 5.3i if it kills me, and you'll have a 300hp AWD V8 mommymobile.

Wife: OK as long as it's safe.

Me(2 weeks later): I'm at dealer, just made a deal on your new truck, gotta come pick it up after work tonight.

Reminds me of the time my parents asked for help choosing a laptop.
I gave them my top three, in order.
Of course they took my last choice.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Where's a gun to the head smilie when you need it? But seriously. I try to explain to her not to get her heart set on the first vehicle she test drives before she test drives anything else and she does anyways.

Just go buy one.

I really want another '76-77 Celica and a '78 Chevy Luv. I know, I can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.

mndsm wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Where's a gun to the head smilie when you need it? But seriously. I try to explain to her not to get her heart set on the first vehicle she test drives before she test drives anything else and she does anyways.

Just go buy one.

Well that should hopefully be happening this weekend.

As long as she doesn't change her mind.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Where's a gun to the head smilie when you need it? But seriously. I try to explain to her not to get her heart set on the first vehicle she test drives before she test drives anything else and she does anyways.

Next time, exploit that. Test drive the car you most want, first.

foxtrapper wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Where's a gun to the head smilie when you need it? But seriously. I try to explain to her not to get her heart set on the first vehicle she test drives before she test drives anything else and she does anyways.

Next time, exploit that. Test drive the car you most want, first.

Haha I wish that would work but she hates everything I like.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Where's a gun to the head smilie when you need it? But seriously. I try to explain to her not to get her heart set on the first vehicle she test drives before she test drives anything else and she does anyways.

Be happy. She did the same thing when she picked you.

patgizz wrote: Me: I just discovered the Saab 9-7x. i'm going to find you a 5.3i if it kills me, and you'll have a 300hp AWD V8 mommymobile. Wife: OK as long as it's safe. Me(2 weeks later): I'm at dealer, just made a deal on your new truck, gotta come pick it up after work tonight.

Type the word "Aero" into that search and it magically has another 100hp and SIX liters of pure American evil under the hood

itsarebuild wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: Where's a gun to the head smilie when you need it? But seriously. I try to explain to her not to get her heart set on the first vehicle she test drives before she test drives anything else and she does anyways.

Be happy. She did the same thing when she picked you.

Ouch!

Not ouch. It's a good thing.

It can be fun, it can be terrible, it can be both.

When we bought the TSX in 2004, we were all over the map. She wanted a convertible; it had to seat 2 adults and 2 teenagers, with at least some trunk space left over. We drove a GT Cruiser, Sebring, SAAB 9-3 Turbo, Mustang GT, and MINI Cooper, before deciding that none of them had enough space in back and ditching the ragtop idea. After switching to 4-doors, we drove a WRX (auto, which sucked), Altima 3.5SE (I liked, she thought was "boring"), and an Accord V6. She still couldn't make a decision. We were in the dealership a second time on the Accord that I was just finding out she didn't want, when a new TSX drove by (it was a new model that year). I suggested we try the Acura dealer across town instead, and the rest is history.

When the time came to replace the totaled Battle Bus this spring, I was looking to go cheap because the van doesn't get a ton of use. I found one identical in age, trim, color, mileage, and condition to ours, except it was 3.8/AWD instead of 3.6/FWD like the Bus. It was a whopping $100 more than the check the insurance company gave us for the total. It was the easy button, but it was 15 years old. After some research, decided that if we were not going really cheap, then I wanted one 2012 or newer for the improved brakes and Pentastar engine.

So I was looking for midline Grand Caravans priced in the mid-teens when we happened to drive a loaded, top-trim T&C. She loved all the stuffs it had, but it was in a horrific color combination, even though the price was pretty reasonable. She was raving about it even though it had an ugly interior and it was black, which we don't like. So, I mentally bumped the budget up and found a nice T&C Limited in a good color / interior combination (Light Stone interiors are rare) with all the options she liked.

I presented it to her and she freaked out about the price. Really freaked out, like "what are you thinking, you insane moron, we'll be eating cat food when we retire, why are you bringing me this luxury thing for a car we hardly drive?!" freaked out. After a rough 48 hours she decided we wouldn't starve, I negotiated the deal, and we signed on the line. She loves it.

SWMBO is probably the most non-car person I know. She grew up where/when only the extreme rich had cars. Last time out to buy her a new car she said not even looking at the Kia Optima as it's ugly but lets go look at a Hyundai Sonata. Really? Same body, different trim. The only part she enjoys and I don't even like to be around when she does it is the price negotiations. She's Korean and bartering/negotiating is part of the culture.

My wife comes from a family where they don't care about cars at all. To her family, they are appliances, and nothing more. She is also a bit rough on cars, because she drives like a psychopath!

Her first car was a 2003 Kia Spectra. The only options it had were A/C and an auto trans. While I found it particularly miserable, she liked it. It was a basically trouble-free car, but I found it uncomfortable to ride in and/or drive.

After it died a violent death when someone ran a red light and smashed it, we went car shopping. That "give me the cheapest thing on the lot" attitude prevailed against my wishes, and she bought a 2007 gold Hyundai Elantra. Actually, on paper, it wasn't a bad car: it had 4 wheel disc brakes with independent rear suspension, a decent stereo, power everything, etc. After a couple of years, it was plagued with issues, so we went car shopping.

This time, I implored her to drive a few things before she made her decision. She wanted another small sedan, so I wanted to have her drive a few different cars. 1st one she drove was a new Fiesta SE sedan with the Powershift automatic. She hated it, and so did I. It also made some not-so-great clutch smells on the test drive. After that, I believe she drove a base model Corolla. That was a no-go as well. Then, we stopped at a Mazda dealer and she tried a 2010 3. She liked it a lot, and it even had a couple of options like Bluetooth and alloy wheels, which were a huge step up from other cars she was looking at. After she told the dealler to "not to give her some ridiculous ass price" during negotiation, she bought it on the spot! I wanted her to look at a 3 the last time she bought a car, but she didn't give it a chance.

Now, the 3 has been a great car, but it's getting older now. Also, we have a dog now, and hauling her around in the 3 is not ideal, so I want her to get a smaller SUV for her next ride. I hope she listens to me again.

Here's what I did when my wife wanted a new car last year. First, she was absolutely sure she wanted a new CRV, no discussions. After all, our '03 had been perfect since new, and was an outstanding car in every way. So, she and my mother went down to the Honda dealer one day and called me at work to meet them there. They only had a few in stock, and were so busy they handed her the keys to one she didn't want, and then it ran out of gas on the test drive. In the bargaining process, they would only come off the price $250 and acted like they were giving her some great, fantastic deal. So we walked.

The next Sunday I took her to all the car lots and let her look at others that were available while they were closed. Then we went and drove the ones she liked (Mazda, Buick, Ford and Toyota). In the meantime she did a ton of research on her own and decided the RAV4 is what she wanted. It did drive so much better than the other small SUVs that it would have been my choice too.

Anyway, back to Toyota where our salesman (an ex Pittsburgh Steeler by the way) was great. Took time to go through with her all the features, where the Honda guy only wanted to deal with me. She went through the lot and picked the one she wanted, and of course that's the one we drove. When the pricing discussions came up, they came back with a decent number (it was a 2014 close out), but she said she was a loyal Honda girl and they needed to do better to get her to change teams. He came back with another $2k off the price and I about fell out in the floor.

So, she picked the car she wanted, made the deal, and got over $5k off the sticker out the door. I was so proud! Of course I made sure to point out that if she had stuck with the CRV she would have paid $32k instead of $24k and liked the car a lot less. The problem though is that she's turned into a bit of a research shopper on everything.

patgizz wrote: Me: I just discovered the Saab 9-7x. i'm going to find you a 5.3i if it kills me, and you'll have a 300hp AWD V8 mommymobile. Wife: OK as long as it's safe. Me(2 weeks later): I'm at dealer, just made a deal on your new truck, gotta come pick it up after work tonight.

Similar process around here.

Wife: I like (insert car here)

Me: (research) thumbs up or thumbs down return to step 1 on thumbs down

Wife: I like these colors its available in and would like these options

Me: Hunts for a match, goes and buys car, presents it to wife.

She doesn't like car shopping, just wants what she wants as long as I don't think its a bad idea. She'd much prefer I go through the whole purchase process as long as she's getting something she likes.

And its not a "me man, you woman" kinda thing, if she wants to go buy her own car it's her money. But she prefers I do it for her so I do.

EastCoastMojo wrote: I really want another '76-77 Celica and a '78 Chevy Luv. I know, I can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.

The vehicle I drove in high school was a '78 Luv. Hand me down from my dad. I would love to find another one.

SWMBO hates car shopping if it's for her. Doesn't mind if it's for me. She actually is my sanity sounding board and has kept me from making a few mistakes. She has only bought 2 cars in the last 20 years. We still have both. She tells me what she thinks she likes and like JThw8 I give her the thumbs up or down after researching a bit. Then we test drive all the ones that got thumbs up. First one I prepped her and we agreed on the price she needed to get and made her do the negotiating. She hated that part and I had to keep telling the salesman that he needed to be talking to her as she was the person that "might" be buying a car. The next time, she bought a car off me. Negotiations were far easier for her that time...

I assume her next car will be a red FR-S...

You guys are making me feel lucky.

My wife: I want a car with a turbo, all-wheel drive, manual transmission, and heated seats.

Me: So shall it be written, so shall it be done!

End result: