I Thought I’d Be a Lifelong Non-Driver

For about 10 years after getting my license, I was a licensed driver in name only. I got my license at 18, but by the time I turned 30, I’d driven a car only two or three times. Naturally, I had a spotless driving record—and I believed that “cars are more trouble than they’re worth. If I ever buy one, a used kei car will be more than enough.”

I got married at 30, and when I was 33, my husband bought a 981 Boxster GTS. By then, I was wholeheartedly in favor of his Porsche purchase.

What on earth happened to me during those three years between 30 and 33?

What My Husband Did

The key isn’t so much what happened to me as “what my husband did to me.” Looking back, I can identify five things. Today, I’d like to share them.

① He Made Porsche Photos and Videos Part of Everyday Life

My husband regularly watched Porsche episodes of Car Graphic TV, often more than once. He also kept Porsche magazines around the house. So I was in an environment where I saw Porsches all the time. I used to think, “Porsches are for people in a completely different world from mine.” But over time, the idea started to feel less strange, and I began to think it wouldn’t be at all unusual for my husband to buy one. There’s a psychological phenomenon called the “mere-exposure effect”: repeated exposure to something can make us feel more positively toward it. I think that’s exactly what happened.

② He Took Me to Germany and Let Me Experience Riding in a Porsche

We got married in 2012, and in the fall of 2014, we took a belated honeymoon to Germany.

→ Related article: How Germany Became Our Honeymoon Destination After Two Years of Planning

While we were there, we rented a Porsche 911. My husband had actually reserved a Boxster in advance, but when we got to the counter, they matter-of-factly told us, “All the Boxsters are out.” So we ended up with a 911. It was a happy surprise for my husband. “Seriously?! It’s a 911! And it’s a Carrera 4S!” he said, absolutely thrilled. (Back then, I knew nothing about Porsches, so honestly, I couldn’t understand why he was so excited…)

Before the trip, my husband kept telling me:

“You’ve got to get an international driving permit! You don’t get many chances to drive a Porsche overseas!”

But at the time, I stubbornly refused. “No, thanks. I don’t want to drive it in case I scratch it (-_-).” So, naturally, I spent the whole trip in the passenger seat. Still, riding in a Porsche for the first time, I noticed how comfortable it was. People around us also said things like, “Oh, that’s a nice car!”—or at least, I think that’s what they said in English, haha. For the first time, I thought, “Maybe Porsches aren’t so bad after all.”

③ He Shared the Porsche Car Configurator with Me

The official Porsche Japan website has a Car Configurator that lets you build and customize the car you want. My husband often used it to explore different Boxster configurations, showing me the screen as he talked through his choices:

“This is what I really want, but maybe I should get a different color for the soft top?”
“Would a beige interior look good?”

I’d look at the options and say, “Wouldn’t black be better for the interior? It won’t show dirt as much.” Then he’d try changing the configuration, and we’d go back and forth, figuring out the details together.

④ He Let Me Test-Drive a Panamera

Taking a Panamera for a test drive was a major turning point for me. As I wrote in an earlier post, there’s no better way to appreciate what makes a Porsche special than to get behind the wheel.

→ Related article: What It’s Like When a Husband Wants to Buy a Porsche and His Wife Isn’t Convinced

Of course, if he’d suddenly dragged me to a Porsche Center, I might have said, “Wait, why all of a sudden? I don’t want to.” But because I’d already been seeing Porsches regularly and looking at the Car Configurator, I was in the right frame of mind to say, “Well, okay—let’s go take a look.”

As I recall, we casually decided to “go test-drive a Porsche,” dropped by a dealership, and I got to drive a Panamera. (Maybe there was a Panamera event going on at the time.)

The moment I pressed the accelerator, I was hit with a wave of shock: “Whoa! What kind of car is this?! Σヽ(｀д´；)ﾉ” I was instantly captivated by Porsche. From that moment on, buying a Panamera with my own money became one of my career goals.

⑤ He Paid for It Out of His Own Pocket

This was a big one. My husband said he’d pay for the Porsche out of his own pocket, rather than use money from our household budget. As I understand it, he put down around ¥7 million and financed the rest. These days, it seems you can arrange a loan with smaller monthly payments, too. We had children, so as his wife, it mattered a lot to me that the purchase wouldn’t affect our day-to-day finances.

So, that’s my list.

Share the Journey with Your Wife

To be honest, I wasn’t there when my husband bought the Boxster GTS. He went to the dealership by himself and made the decision on his own. I hadn’t even met the salesperson at that point. Still, I didn’t object to him buying a Porsche at all. I think that’s because he’d shared the journey of buying a Porsche with me.

Rather than treating the Porsche as a car just for himself, he let me ride in one, talked through the configuration with me, and helped me imagine what life with the car might be like. I genuinely appreciated that he brought me into the process.

I went with him to the Porsche dealership when the car was delivered. (The Boxster only seats two, so I think we dropped our child off at daycare that Saturday before heading there together.) Being there as he realized a dream he’d had for 20 years was an emotional experience. It was a manual, so he stalled as soon as he pulled out of the dealership (laughs). But I truly thought, “I’m so glad my husband got his Porsche. Congratulations!”

The other day, I was thinking about all this and told him, “You were really good at laying the groundwork before buying your Porsche.”

“Of course! I was serious about it! Σヽ(｀д´；)ﾉ”

Well, there you have it… If you’re serious enough, you can make just about anything happen (laughs).