With respect to the purchase decision of their spouse's vehicle, I wonder how many forum members:
- Have no input into purchase decision of their spouse
- Somewhat influence purchase decision
- Greatly influence purchase decision
- Make the purchase decision
In my case, it's been 3 or 4. Only once has she hated my choice - I traded in her 92 Mazda MX-3 (with a smooth 1.8L 24 valve DOHC V6) for a 98 Isuzu Rodeo. I don't blame her - I also regretted it.
glad you added wagon to the poll... we have one car, a Jetta 1.8T Wagon. no manuals were available at the time of purchase, so it's auto, but that made my wife happy since she prefers an automatic even though she can drive stick. I say it's because she's lazy, but she also gets nervous about hill starts. she'd be happy if the next car was a manual with hill holder.
for us it was more like a mutual #3. i did all the research based on her known criteria: small, nimble, good cargo space for kiddy stuff, four doors as we'd just had our daughter, seating position adjustable for her small frame (5') and decent power - she hates sluggish vehicles. she was sick at the time so couldn't participate in test drives, and we had to get one to replace the previous car, which was an insurance write-off, so i jumped on the 1.8T wagon that fell into our price range because it had the same seating position as the GTI and a bit of a power boost, so i knew my wife would be happy.
next car we are still very strongly leaning to a first-gen mazda5 - love the looks and practicality, and my wife is also coming around on the idea of going manual again, not least because of how terrible the automatic is in our Jetta, but I plan to drive that thing into the ground since it's probably gone over the line into negligible value as a trade-in or private sale....