common reactor

Just to give you a little background on me, I owned an S2000 about 10 years ago and have wanted another one since then. I've owned a lot of cars since then and none of them have cured the itch. I've always had a plan to buy one as a "Sunday Car", and figured that I'd have time to do that before I have kids and the real responsibilities kick in. Fast forward years later and I still haven't bought one, and I'm finding myself in a position where I don't know if I ever will.

I am getting married this upcoming summer. Without getting into too much detail, my fiance and I are very comfortable with money. We have a good amount set aside, our wedding/honeymoon is paid for, and we save a lot of money every month. We don't live lavish lifestyles and we don't spend a lot of money. I drive a 2014 Altima which will be paid off soon, and I also have a 2009 Mazda 3 that I am selling. My fiance gets a brand new car every two years that her company pays for entirely. So we'll only be paying gas/insurance/maintenance for one economy car, with no car payments.

In my opinion, this is the time to do this. But my money is also her money, and when I mentioned buying even an older one (higher miles, whatever) for $10,000-$12,000, it didn't go well. We haven't bought a house yet because we're waiting until we're married, but buying another car isn't going to change our budget or timeframe on that.

Maybe some of you are in relationships where you can just buy what you want, or maybe you have your money and your significant other has theirs' so there isn't any argument about it. But for those of you who may have been in a similar situation as me, I'm curious to hear the logic you used in your proposal, and if it worked.

Thanks

importluva

I am incredibly lucky because these conversations are easy with my wife. We share everything. The philosophy is if we have the money and it makes either of us happy, why wouldn’t we do it? She supported me with two such car purchases, one of which is the S2000. She agreed to a top down test drive with me, in fact she loved it! Bought it soon after. She can’t drive stick and her car now stays outside. She is not a car enthusiast but she understands how important cars are to me and ultimately they make me happy. That’s all that matters.

common reactor

That definitely doesn't sound unreasonable. I think if we weren't two years or so away from trying to have a baby this would be an entirely different issue.

Duckfan0023

I know your situation all to well sir! my wife and i have been married for 9 years, we've had a lot of cars together, some good some bad (really bad), when it came to the me getting my honda S2000, it was the same conversation you and your wife had, if we got the money and makes us happy do it! the being said, my wife was not for my s2k, because a previous car purchase that ended badly, suffice to say never buy a 300zx. so what logic did i use? i took all the responsibility of the car on myself, meaning how it was getting paid for. so i told my wife that ill find the money for it outside of our normal income, in the form of a second job and donating plasma, which were i live pays close to $400 a month for about 12 hours of my time per month. that amount right there is twice what my car payment even is a month. i found a really nice s2k, had our good friend who is a lead mechanic at our local lexus dealership check it out from bumper to bumper and when he said it was solid i pulled the trigger and bought it. now my wife was all kinds of resistant at first, questions like how am i gonna pay for it, when am i even gonna drive it? (i have a daily driver 2014 jeep) why do we need another car? so i started by applying for a second job at a local convenient store down the street, 3 nights a week i work there, very easy job with little responsibility but plenty of extra money for my car and actually helped us out of a considerable amount of credit card debt. then the big question of why do i need another car. the answer was simple. i don't! but as a man in a capitalist consumer driven society i wanted something tangible that i could call my own. something that just kind of made all the shitty days worth it when i hop in my S2K and drive the coast (i live in oregon) or some curvy rode or whenever. because at the end of the day life is short and i don't want any regrets. i want to live life as full as i can (while being a responsible parent). thats my story i hope it helps, my wife loves my car now and loves the passenger seat watching my ear to ear grin on my face as I'm rollin top down wherever we're going.

good luck!

DanielB

In my case, I started my petrol head phase about 15 years ago with a different car. My wife is not a car person although she appreciates a fun / beautiful car. My argument was essentially this: like the OP, we can afford it, so it's a matter of choosing what we spend our money on; not if we have it. I don't really have any other vices. I don't follow popular sports, I don't play golf, I don't go drinking with my buddies (often), etc. The one thing I dream about is driving on the track and hence I needed something that could support that. I'm also trained as an engineer but don't get to use those skills at work anymore, so I have a burning need to build stuff and solve problems. (I know there are a lot of you guys on this board in the same situation!). Ultimately I pleaded that this is my one vice and it's important to me. She really doesn't get it, but appreciates how important it is to me and hence we find a reasonable amount of time and money for me to spend that we can both live with.

Switching to the S2000 turned out to be a better idea. We had not owned a convertible before and it turns out we really enjoy going out for weekend day drives, sometimes with the local Miata club. The S2000 is so versatile that I can come back from a track day, quickly swap the car back to street tires and brakes and we can go out for dinner with the top down. So it has turned out to be something that she enjoys too - an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

rpg51

Best to wait. Get the house first.

rrounds

It was easy for me. I let her take one for a test drive. When she got back she told me to start looking for a good one. Found a '06 back in '10 one state away, drove up bought it and she drove it the 600 miles back home. Every time we stopped for gas/food she aways had a great big smile on her face. We have put over 130k miles on our S and we hope to put a lot more. We have a 5 week, 8k+ mile trip planned for this year or next.

ROD
p.s. it's her S, she just lets me drive it on Vacation

slalom44

Make it be her idea. Make sure she is well aware that you like the S2000 and find something that she really wants.

For example: Let's say you go house hunting and she falls in love with a particular house, neighborhood or house feature that just happens to be something you don't prefer. You tell her we don't always get what we want.

rpg51

Imagine, like me, you need to get consent to buying 2, not 1, S.

MrFunk

Everyone is different. Every relationship is different. So my advice may not apply.
Your money is your money. If you earn it you can spend it. I've never had to pass anything by my wife - she knows I can manage my finances and doesn't question my judgement and nor do I hers. You also sound very young and have plenty of life/time ahead of you to save money for whatever you both want in life. You seem to be good with $ and if she knows you well she should trust your judgement. She should also know what your passions are (I hope) if you're getting married??? I've been married 4 years however been together with my wife 12 - when I was planning on buying my S2000 a year and a half ago I simply told her and she smiled. We now have a 2 month year old and nothing has changed - I'm planning some big upgrades for the S in the spring and she smiled yet again when I told her about those. In fact, when I told her I was planning on shipping the car down to FL to get it supercharged she said "sweet, we can plan a lil vacation around it with the baby!" What makes me happy makes her happy and vise versa and we support each other's passions... it should be no different with you and your wife... Don't start the married with her dictating what you can and can't have when you work hard and are responsible with your money. When she wants to do something that you know she's passionate about you need to then support her too. Life is too short otherwise.