Catching a glimpse of a supercar in my town is a rare event, so when I pulled up to my neighborhood grocery store yesterday and saw an Aston Martin Vantage in the parking lot, I lost my marbles.
The Vantage isn’t the most exotic or rare car in the world, but it’s one of my favorites. My wife is a car girl and appreciates fine automobiles but isn’t as easily impressed by anything that isn’t a Porsche. As I touted the Aston’s low-slung profile and sleek shape, she said something that took me off guard.
“That’s not a car a manly man drives. That’s the type of car that a guy buys during a midlife crisis to reinforce the fact that he is worthy of something.”
Ouch. I couldn’t believe my ears.
“But it’s an Aston Martin,” I said, “It’s the car James Bond drives. He’s a manly man, right?”
“No. Soft hands, perfect haircut, dresses nice… definitely not a manly man. In fact, while that’s a sexy car, it looks a lot like an Eclipse.”
She found the above picture and, I hate to admit, she has a point. The debate followed us to Easter Sunday dinner, where my wife showed a picture of the Vantage to my sister-in-law and asked if it was a car a manly man should buy.
Her response was nearly identical, word for word, to what my wife said. Except she added this little gem, “It’s a fine car for a guy to buy. As long as his wife is the one driving it.”
How can this be? How can one of the world’s most desirable cars be seen as comparable to a Mitsubishi, or worse, seen as a non-masculine midlife crisis car?
We asked my brothers the same question, and they agreed that the Vantage is indeed a car that a real man should buy.
Are women not as impressed with cars as men think they are? Maybe we need to stop placing so much emphasis on attaining our dream cars and understand that practicality is a much more attractive feature.
Even with that said, I maintain my argument that the Vantage is a car worthy of a real man, while my wife ended her side of the debate by saying, “I respect you as a human being, but it’s just not a manly car.”
So I bring the debate to you:
Is the Aston Martin Vantage a manly car?
-tgriffith
