I think it's taken a few years to get the MRS into larger/faster cars, I mainly get cars I like to drive so often are a bit over powered for her actual needs..
Here are her cars... I tended to have hot hatches or mile crunching machines.
- MKII Metro 1.0 HLE - A banger to get her around for 6 months after passing her test.. terrible car in many ways but it worked!
- MKIV Astra 1.8 SRi - A bargain end of lease car from my brothers work, but pokey enough and
- MKII Zafira 1.9 SRI CDTi - A family wagon, still 200BHP was way more, and the 'adaptive' suspension was just for the Lolz. We had it for 9 years and she still misses the practicality of the overhead storage.
- Fiat Stilo 1.9d - another car to fill in a gap for a few months for throw away money, but ended up keeping it for a year with zero reliability issues!
- VW Beetle Convertible - She thought she'd get something as girly as possible, she liked that and kept it for 3 years.
- Mini Countryman 1.6 Cooper - The first car she spec'd for herself, just that bit extra room for the kids/dog, OK to drive, just underpowered.
- Nissan X-Trail Tekna 1.6 DCi AWD - She didn't want anything this large, but with 360 cameras she actually really really liked it and preferred it over her mini (Way more standard kit like heated leather seats, pan roof, sat-nav, auto parking etc all standard)
- (Current) BMW X3 35d - Initially not sure about the power etc, but as we found one with the 360 cameras/adaptive suspension/auto parking and pan roof she didn't mind trying it (Her biggest requirement if driving an SUV is the 360 cameras)
She now likes SUVs, the space, convenience of getting everyone (including the dog) in / out and whilst the 360 cameras / auto parking etc can be viewed as not necessary, it's only the 360 cameras that she uses fairly often and gives her confidence (and me sometimes) when in very tight spaces..