I Had Absolutely No Interest in Cars

These days, I absolutely love my Porsche Panamera. My older brother, who’s two years ahead of me, has been a devoted Subaru fan for as long as I can remember and still drives a manual-transmission Legacy. (Apparently, he has his eye on a Levorg now.) You might think I grew up loving cars, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I had absolutely no interest in cars, and for about ten years after getting my driver’s license, I barely drove at all.

To put it bluntly, I thought “cars are a useless burden that do nothing but cost money to maintain, so I definitely don’t need one.” And if I’m being even more honest, I used to look down on people who bought luxury cars or spent a lot on their cars, thinking “they must be crazy.” (Sorry!)

The person who first got me interested in cars was my husband.

Meeting My Car-Obsessed Husband

I met my husband seven years ago, when I was 28. He’s a devoted car enthusiast. He once bought a movie on DVD simply because “a car I’m interested in appears on screen for one minute.” On weekends, he’d spend hours watching episodes of *Car Graphic TV* he’d recorded—and sometimes replay the same one over and over.

Air-cooled engines, why naturally aspirated is better than turbo, how an engine’s sound is music rather than noise—he genuinely, wholeheartedly loves cars.

When we’d only been dating a short time, he was driving an old navy-blue BMW 318i. He’d often say things like “I just love this front end” or “Home already? I haven’t had enough driving yet! I could keep going forever in this car!” Listening to him, I thought, “What a strange guy.”

I’d tell him things like, “A car just needs to get you from A to B. Actually, I don’t even need one.” His response was often a spirited “No, you’re wrong! You don’t know the first thing about cars!”

A Test-Drive Review Every Weekend

After that, almost every weekend, he’d take me out for a drive (we never once traveled by train) and give me enthusiast-level commentary like:

“German cars are in a different league when it comes to stability at highway speeds.”
“See? You barely feel any lateral force on these mountain roads! It just turns so precisely!”

Sometimes we’d take a Japanese car instead, and he’d explain:

“Japanese cars aren’t designed with Autobahn driving in mind, like German cars are, so they don’t feel as stable on the highway. They might be fine around town, but when you consider highway driving, a lot of ordinary Japanese cars can be pretty dangerous.”

Every weekend felt like I was being made to sit through a *Car Graphic TV* road-test review. I used to think, “Why not just put all this on YouTube?”

That went on for a while. Then we got married, and, little by little, I was converted by my husband (lol) and started to understand the differences between cars. These days, I’m a full-fledged Panamera fan.

Husband Wants a Sports Car vs. Wife Says No

Every now and then, I see comments online or hear people around me say things like:

“My wife was against me getting a sports car, so I bought a minivan where the kids can ride comfortably and we can fit all our luggage.”
“I’d love a two-seater, but it’s not possible right now. My wife won’t let me.”

But I don’t think it’s usually the wife’s fault. More often, the husband is the one who needs to do some work. In other words:

The real issue is a lack of passion, commitment, evidence, and persuasive power to win your wife over.

If you truly want a sports car, you’ll find a way to make it happen. Even if you’re turned down again and again, you’ll rethink your approach and keep trying until you can buy one.

That’s why I’ve written about how my husband won over someone like me, who had no interest in cars, and eventually got us to buy a Porsche. If you’re curious, take a look:

→ Related: The Biggest Reason a Wife Opposes Her Husband Buying a Porsche
→ Related: Five Things My Husband Did to Win Over His Car-Indifferent Wife and Buy a Porsche