So, you’re going to buy a new car.  And you have already decided you will buy a sports car.  The only problem is that you are going to have to justify that purchase to your wife or significant other.  Let’s be honest, if you come home with a new 4-door sedan on car-buying day, you’d get a hug and some compliments on your wisdom from your wife.  If you scream into the driveway in a cherry red ragtop, you’re going to get something else altogether.

Many men will argue that women just don’t understand the male attraction to the sports car.  Nothing could be more wrong.  They understand it all too well.  That’s why it’s so hard to convince them to assent to your decision to buy that shiny two-seater.  They understand your juvenile motivations and just aren’t convinced they warrant a significant investment of your marital assets.

Don’t give up hope, however.  If you are committed to buying a sports car and the one real impediment is your wife’s contrary opinion, you might still have a chance at driving around town and impressing everyone who looks at you.  Your going to have to persuade her that your sports car purchase is something other than a pathetic grasp back toward your youth or some way to make you feel better about whatever inadequacies you might subconsciously believe you have. 

I said, don’t give up hope.  I know the idea of actually changing your wife’s viewpoint seems very unlikely, but it is possible.  It does happen.  Look around; occasionally you will see a guy driving the car of your dreams who is still happily married.  Sometimes their wife is even in the passenger seat.  They had to have something working for them right?  Well, here it is, your secret weapon in the Great Debate over your sports cars…Three solid indisputable reasons why buying a sports car makes perfect sense:

Investment

Wives love financial stability.  They like the idea of financial stability as much as we like the idea of losing it all at the poker table, finding a dollar in the parking lot and building it back up to a profit.  Whereas we like financial risk, they feed at the trough of responsible investment.  Luckily, a well-chosen sports car can be a superb investment. 

Newer models may not always fit the investment bill, but classics do.  You can point out the consistent value increases in classic sports cars and demonstrate that today’s $30,000 purchase may eventually be your toddler’s college fund.  Oh, yes, mention a college fund.  Trust me, she’ll like that one a lot.

Safety

I know, this seems like a long shot and probably runs contrary to everything you have ever heard but there is a solid argument to be made here.  Sports cars boast spectacular maneuverability and handling.  If you drive in traffic, you have a great chance of being able to avoid an otherwise unavoidable accident in a top-notch sports car.  She will resist this argument and will probably try to counter it with common sense and maybe even research.  If this happens, rely on this sample anecdote.  It’s a true story—happened to me a few years ago.  Just say it happened to a friend of yours.

I was driving down the interstate in the left lane with a large semi-truck with two trailers on my right side.  I was passing, but was not blazing down the highway.  Right about the time I was alongside the middle of the trailer attached to the cab of the truck, the driver decided he needed into the left lane.  I didn’t have time to accelerate around him.  I didn’t have time to slow down and let him past completely.  I had to duck off onto the medium at a pretty good rate of speed.

It was a bumpy ride, but I felt pretty secure until I noticed that big bump.  You know, the little spot where the highway patrolmen can turnaround.  If you approach it while sailing down the median, it acts as a ramp.  I hit the ramp at highway speeds and flew through the sky, landing after about thirty yards of flight.  I was able to successfully negotiate the landing and stop the car without injury or incident.  If I were driving the family station wagon, I would have been toast.  The Porsche saved me.  It’s superior handling was the only thing standing between the End and me.

Seriously, use that one. 

Status

This is a tricky card to play, but you can get some positive results if you do it right.  Women like status.  They deny it, but the do.  Don’t believe me?  Stop mowing your lawn for a few weeks this summer.  She won’t tell you the lawn looks bad.  She might, actually, but if she does it will be done in reference to other lawns.  “Honey, our lawn is horrible, look at the Smiths’ yard.  It’s so nice.  You must mow today.”  You know the drill.

Well, if your chunk of suburbia is like mine, it’s lined with boring cars resembling those owned by your grandparents and a slew of look-alike SUV’s.  If you can get her to imagine, just for a moment the status benefits of having the one hot sports car on the block and just what that will communicate to your rat-racing neighbors, you have an outside shot at selling her on the whole thing. 

You’ve made a decision.  You are going to buy that sports car.  It may not be the best decision ever in terms of marital bliss, but it’s your decision and you are going to stick with it until the bitter end.  You might as well try to make the whole process run smoothly. 

OK, so the smiling wife next to that guy you saw in the sporty convertible the other day wasn’t really his wife.  And sure, a nice safe money market account is probably more to your wife’s liking than automobile investment.  Yes, the safety thing may be a tough sell, too.  But you have to take what you can get and it’s always better to enter an argument with something to say in your own defense.  You need to do whatever you can to make sure your last happy moment isn’t the split-second before you shut off the ignition when you drive home.

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