Mars and Venus

Question: How can two people have such different approaches to one simple act: buying a new car?

Answer: one is male and the other female.

Example: After much “agonizing reflection”, FH and I have agreed that we really should buy a bigger car this year. After all, soon there will be four of us, and the Twingo is basically a nippy, two-person, city-type vehicle. But, because we both feel quite strongly that we don’t want to be a two-car family, this means selling our dear Twingo and replacing it with something bigger.
Both of us are – rather pathetically – quite sentimentally attached to our little green lump of metalwork, hence the “agonizing”.

Anyway, the decision has been made.

But what I didn’t anticipate was all the “groundwork” that – for a man – precedes the actual (simple?) act of buying a new car…

So, over the past couple of months, a typical discussion in our house has gone something like this:

FH (proffering glossy brochure): What do you think of the Clio Estate? Its got a (blah blah blah) engine and (blah blah blah) horsepower and…. (excuse the missing words: my hearing is wonderfully selective at times)

Me: Yeah, fine. Nice.

FH: Mmm… (producing a different glossy brochure plus a car magazine) but then again, maybe it doesn’t have enough boot space. What about the Kangoo? There are petrol and diesel models so – obviously – we’d get a petrol one, and there’s a lot more room in the back. Also, the engine power is (blah blah blah)…

Me: Yeah, good. I agree.

FH (frowning, deep in concentration): Mmm, but maybe it’s too big. I don’t know, I’ve been thinking lately about the Modus. They’ve just brought out a bigger model and (blah blah blah)…

Me (one eye on the TV): Mmm. Yeah. I like the blue one.

The thing is, if it was up to me, I would definitely adopt the same approach to car-buying as to, say, clothes shopping. I.e. I would walk into a garage, say “I want to buy a new car”, wait for them to show me one, then, if I liked it, say “great, do you have it in blue?”

But it’s not up to me. So I am just waiting patiently for the groundwork phase to be over so that – fingers crossed – a new car eventually gets bought sometime before the end of the year…