Do you choose the family car - or does he?

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

We've had a hunch for a time that women play a huge part in choosing what make and model of family car to buy. But advertisers keep telling us that's not true - it's the men who make car decisions, they say.

So, we thought we'd ask you what you think...

What part do you play in the decision to buy your family car (and we do mean family car, not the sporty two-seater your other half might have his mid-life-crisis eye on)?

Do you choose it by yourself? Or does he? Or perhaps you do all the research but it's a joint decision in the end?

Do tell...

It's a jointish decision - I say things I would like and DH does the actual donkey work of finding possibles. We both have overall veto though.

DH and I have two cars between us. I suppose at the moment we do have a car each, rather than full on sharing but not always been the case. But we both chose our cars - it is discussed. If I don't like a suggestion we don't get it and vice versa.

Oh, and it is more likely to be me, not DH, who hankers after the sporter two seater

Me, me and me. No dh only a ds so we have a two seater sports car. If ds (5) had his way I'd be made to trade it in for a Pagani Zonda. Apparently it is the fastest road car .

I tend to give him a selection of cars that i like, then he will do the research and narrow it down to a 3-4 within our budget that we then test drive.

I get to have final say on which one we have as I am the one to has to do the school run, shopping, after school clubs etc so i'll be in 99% of the time.

As with just about every major purchase, I did all the research, narrowed it to two choices, gave him the key facts, and told him my preference. I am organised and bossy.

Hmmm, your advertisers are rather behind the times I think.

For our first car, we chose together. For the last two, I've been the main driving force (pardon the pun) behind which car we have and when we get it.

I've done all the research on safety, reviews, prices, insurance and servicing costs etc. I'm the one that's bothered friends and family about their cars for info. I'm the one who's found cars to price up and test drive.

DH has so far been happy to agree with the decisons I've made, particularly as I'm the one who uses the car most - he commutes by train each day. I'm also the one who sorts out servicing, MOT and general upkeep. And I bet I'm not the only one either.

My company car - my decision. Although, we did go round a lot for the first choice to make sure we were getting the one that suited all our needs, and double checked before re-ordering - and he was involved in this

Dh and I have a car each - he decides on his car, I decide on mine. Obv we both talk about it, and both test drive each others short list, but the final decision is the main drivers.

From the reception I get at car dealerships, they believe the same as your advertisers. And I have walked out of places and refused to deal with them because of that too. Or when they try to persuade me that I want the mumsy car or specification, rather than the nice drive that I actually want.

I said what I wanted. He said what he wanted. We both listened to each other. Went to one of them big car supermarkets with one of those handy directories saying how good the cars are. I chose a couple I liked, he did the same. We ended up going for one that I liked, but he liked it too.

I have decided what car we are getting, but dh will be the one to test drive it, and if he doesn't like it i will do more research.

he bought our last one and it is crap!

Have 2 cars. He chose his car, but with input from me (i.e. last car was automatic, which I loathed, so this one manual). The bigger car is mine and I'd say that I chose it really, though with input from him.

If either of us absolutely vetoed the other's choice then that would be it.

I suppose you'd call my car the family car, as is the one we tend to use when is all of us. So it was really a joint decision but with me making the final choice.

It may not be the same in all relationships, but I am happy for dh to go and get the car (which I have chosen) as he is a more hard-nosed negotiator than me.

I did the research but we chose it together and he went with my dad to buy it.

we ask the man in the garage adn he tells us what to buy, or my bil or anyone in fact who gives a shite about cars cos we don't

the only advertising that would work for me is 'look here is a car that isn't full of electric shite that will break all the time and starts without fail unless you are stupid enough to leave the lights on all night which is unlikely cos the car will shout at you if you attempt to leave the car with the lights on.'

Fraid your sources are right in my case.

DH has always chossen my car for the last 15 years or so. in fact he bought me one as a surprise birthday present !

I'm more than happy with his choices. He's very in to cars and drives a porche useless family car so he is very keen to be driving a weekend car he likes.

I have no problem with this

Me because there isn't a he. DD gets a say in it though. She wouldn't want to be seen in something uncool.

DH cannot drive, so the final decision always rests with me. We decide a budget and broad requirements, then I research cars and usually narrow it down to 2 or 3. DH loves a spreadsheet, so he works out the running costs, depreciation etc for each model, I test drive them then I choose based on all the information.

I would say that most dealerships are fine with a woman - lots of the salespeople are savvy enough to ask who is going to be driving the car, and thereafter direct their attention to me - BMW surprised me by being particularly good at this (that would be me suffering from stereotypical thinking rather than them, then ).

There was one salesman who only spoke to DH - DH wandered off with DD2 in her carseat in order to force the salesman to speak to me, which he did. DH then came back and the salesman turned all his attention to DH again! I told the manager of the dealership at a later date that this was one of the reasons we had decided against buying their car...

We do what Eleanor does pretty much.

I imagine if we were buying something a bit newer it might be different but seeing as he has to drive the thing everyday he'd get more say than me. I drive the crappest of our two cars but that's because I have far less distance to travel. Seems fair.

oh good otterinaskoda, does our lack of interest make us unsexy in some way?

Perhaps I'm as assertive on the car front as I am after the time my Dad came home from a car-buying expedition in a bright orange Volvo Estate . We called it the Oranjeboom. Mum never let him buy a car on his own ever again. I would never let her pick me up from school in it Perhaps I'm still mentally scarred, but just didn't realise!

To add to my post: once we have decided on te car I am happy to let DH take over regarding finding it, ordering it, sorting out finances, etc. I can't even remember the last time I test drove a car!

We do masses of research, talk about it in mind-numbing detail, do test drives of various contenders .... and then dh totally ignores my views and buys something different altogether.

In fairness to dh though, after making awful choices of 2nd car in the past year (the sports car with only 2 seats, a pointless 2nd estate car that is too long to fit in the only place we have to park it) he is supposedly letting me choose its replacement. We've narrowed it down to 3 contenders but we can't agree on which one to go for.

I don't care much about cars, but I know what I don't like. So DH comes up with suggestions and I can shout him down. I also say in advance that certain makes/models are a definite no-no before he starts looking. At least, that was the case 7 years ago when we last bought a car. In the end it's just down to finding something that's not too much of a wreck, but that is still affordable for us.