Why women should buy their dream car (at any age)

COMMENT

Movies, books, and music have loudly, proudly celebrated women doing extraordinary things as bona fide adults. When Reese Witherspoon portrayed a woman who heads off into the wilderness for 94 days to trek the notoriously challenging Pacific Crest Trail in California ("Wild", 2014), women around the world thrilled at the idea of leaving their ordinary obligations in the past. 

We’re earning more, we’re more self-aware, women 40+ know what they want

It shouldn't be amazing to anyone that as women hit their post-35 years, their finances are usually better, their job prospects improved, their self-awareness honed, and their confidence in their own choices is significantly better than it was at age 21.

So, fittingly, once women have owned the sensible starter car and the family bus-sized SUV, it's time to indulge in the car a woman genuinely, really, wants. That's certainly been my experience. At 18, my parents helped me to buy a used Honda Civic. It was a 1991, dark grey, sleek little number that looked sporty and zippy. It had some guts to it, too. The slightest pressure on the accelerator and my little Civic was off and firing. When that car literally broke down beyond any repair, I replaced it with a car I could afford in my 20s on the first half-decent salary I was making. My 2009 Hyundai Getz - in black since I'm a Melbourne native, obviously - has served me brilliantly for the last 15 years. Low maintenance, a cheap tank to fill, responsive to braking and accelerating, good on long trips, and really easy to find a park for. No wonder it’s rated so high by carsales' Owner Reviews.

Time to drop the old Getz

But, at 40, having been asked by my tax agent and my mechanic whether I was really determined to keep my Getz, it occurred to me that I didn't have to drive a car until it literally breaks down. With some pretty savvy savings, and having paid off my mortgage, I could feasibly, finally buy a car that I really wanted. My first thought? "I want something sleek, fast, sexy...I want a sports car".

Let's be real though - my savings aren't so phenomenal that I want to spend the lot of them on a car. So, having scrolled through the reviews and ratings on carsales, I determined I wanted a Mazda MX-5. Owners love them, reviewers rave about them, and they have been a cult favourite for decades. I shortlisted both a 2016 and a 2019 model, made an appointment to test drive, and went out to Essendon Fields to meet my car.

My heart was set on a sexy, sleek sports car

I won't lie. I didn't immediately go for a sports car. I dutifully looked up all the reliable small cars on the lower budget end, and frankly, I was bored out of my brain. I saw the MX-5 and all my fuses lit up. But here's the kicker. I test drove this glamorous red MX-5, thrilling in its simplicity on the road, but I felt like I was hovering mere inches off the asphalt. Living in the inner suburbs, where roads are filled with tow trucks, semi-trailers, oversized delivery vans and chunky, big SUVS, I felt like I might get driven straight over. So, having handed the keys back, I made the most of being in a virtual car wonderland. Essendon Fields is home to Mazda, Nissan, Hyundai, Toyota, Volvo, Holden, and Kia. I took a trek through Toyota, Hyundai, and Nissan, before a savvy salesman at one of those brands whispered "If you want something really small but really great, you want to go and check out the Kia Picanto". So, I did.

Hello, new car

I walked in, I saw the 2025 Kia Picanto GT with its low-set, sporty silhouette and compact, clever size in Adventurous Green (an unusual, light sage green that doesn't actually look very adventurous at all), and it was love at first sight. A super smooth test drive in the first car I'd owned with a digital display and warning bells when I went over the speed limit cemented the deal.

I love the MX-5, and especially the racier-looking silhouettes from 2016 and 2019, but I had been facing double the insurance costs, and a car owned by two or more owners in the past. The Kia Picanto GT would be mine, glossy and untouched with all the bells and whistles (window tinting, paint protection, seat trimmings, etc), and it would save me hundreds on insurance per year. I’d given myself full permission to buy my dream car, and it turns out my dream car isn’t the one I impulsively latched onto at first. My dream car is a clever, sporty Picanto GT. A quick browse through carsales proves that there’s plenty of owners and reviewers who agree.

A happy (adventurous green) ending

I’m not going to head into the wilderness for nearly 100 days, nor give away all my worldly materials and trek through South East Asia on a spiritual journey just yet. But, in deciding to give myself the car I really want and actually considering what I want and not purely what I can afford, I have opened a door to imagining other ways I can do what I want, how I want, when I want.

Women don’t say “yes” to themselves often enough, in any avenue of their lives. Maybe permitting yourself to dream big and test drive whatever you set your heart on will actually guide you accidentally into meeting exactly the car you really want.

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