Jimbob26

I should have known better. My lovely wife and I visited the NCM and Bowling Green assembly plant this week as part of a multi-city vacation. We've been married for 16 years and she has put up with my (and our son's) additions to sports cars, seemingly bored with all the attention we give to them. She put up with buying the BMW's, the Porsche, and most recently the new C7, which I began talking about endlessly since the unveiling last January. I picked out my options and ordered in May, and took delivery in October. Boy, do I love my C7.

Guess what? While we were at the factory this week, she tells me she wants a C7! She says is has to be white with a red interior, just like the first one. She wants an automatic transmission (my C7 is manual and she does not drive a manual transmission), and went down the list of things my car has that she also wants. Unbelievable. The Corvette bug has struck again.

KenHorse

What's this "can't drive a stick" bit?

Teach her!

VIK TOY

YEH, shifting is part of the fun of a Vette!! Ken had an Automatic in his C6 and is glad he got a stick in the C7. I already told him if/when he decides to get a 2015 or 2016 I get the 2014. Then we will have 2 blue Vettes and a beat up blue truck
Gee now I am thinking about painting the house blue -just installed blue pearl granite in kitchen!

Fastcat3

As a female I always hate to hear of these women who "can't drive a stick." Sigh!

Zymurgy

You've created a partner who shares your passion for Corvettes!

VIK TOY

NO, the car created the passion. Ken had a brand new Mustang and sold it after he drove the C4 he bought me. It has been uphill ever since. Once a Vette owner, you never go back!!!

KenHorse

When my dad taught me to drive, he insisted on doing so in our 4-on-the-column Fiat instead of our auto-equipped Buick Special because "if you learn to drive a manual, you can drive anything"

Smart man my dad was

mjw930

When my wife and I first met she had a passing interest in cars, mostly from her dad from taking her to local cruise in's and car shows in upstate NY (she is definitely a "daddy's girl"). I remember her telling me about this white convertible that she would pass on her way to work 2 or 3 times a week and how it was drop dead gorgeous. An exotic in her mind. I figured it was a Ferrari, Lambo or something like that as those are typically what the casual layperson equate to exotic and lust after. One day we were driving out for dinner and she went nuts pointing at a white convertible, "That's the car, what is it?". It turned out to be a Porsche Boxster! Being a Porsche nut ever since I was a teenager, having owned many and at the time driving an '89 930 I knew right then and there I needed to marry her. 1 year later that's exactly what I did.

About 2 months before our wedding, after talking about getting her that Boxster she lusted after a year earlier I let her know that although there was a tiptronic version of the Boxster (long before the PDK) that wouldn't fly with me. At the time, in my mind and the mind of virtually every true sports car fanatic using the word automatic and Porsche in the same sentance was blasphemy. If she wanted a Porsche she needed to learn how to drive a stick. There was no argument, she understood and agreed so we set about finding her a learner car. She ended up buying a Golf GTi manual. I had to drive it home from the dealer, she couldn't yet drive a manual. Her desire to own that dream car meant she was willing to buy a car she couldn't drive just to learn how to drive a manual. Within days she was tooling around the neighborhood and withing 2 weeks she was commuting in it daily. 2 years later, as a reward for a promotion at work, a 2003 Boxster S was parked in the garage which she even autocrossed with pretty good results. This from a woman who, just a few years earlier, was convinced she could never learn drive a stick.

However, since 2008 both her updated GTi and 2012 CC have been DSG's and honestly, we don't miss the stick on either of those cars.

When I asked if we should consider the auto in the C7 (it was a test) she turned my comment from over a decade ago back around on me. To quote her, "A true sports car has a manual transmission, how dare you even ask"!

While the game we play is fun we both agree that if the A8 were available now AND performed like the Porsche PDK (IMHO the best dual clutch transmission on the planet) it would be a VERY tough decision. Chevy solved that for us by pushing that out to the 2016 model year so yesterday I placed my order for a Z51 7M Coupe. When I showed my wife the order confirmation she literally jumped for joy. It's so great when you can share your passion for something with your best friend. Especially when they truly "get it".

2 Ag R8Cs

I love it when guys pick up cars or guns for their girlfriends or wives. Of course the guy always knows what is best.

If she is going to me driving it she should pick up what she wants.

If the situation was reversed how would the guys on this forum like it if their significant other chose what kind if trans

Steve Garrett

Jim, get her the car!

owc6

I absolutely agree that if this car is for her, it should be her decision! It would't matter what the car was, BTW.

However, Everyone should be taught how to drive a stick, just so they know how. They aren't so rare that it is a dead skill (yet)! Sadly, that may not last that much longer in the US. Most of the friends that my grown children have don't know know how. My daughter has gotten to drive quite a few fun cars that her friends couldn't because they didn't know how to operate the "thingy on the right and the extra foot-a-ma-jig."


lisa