Who buys cars for surprise Christmas gifts?

On Twitter the other day, I asked:

Someone please write this article: profile of people who give their spouses automobiles for Christmas. Do they exist? Are they insane?

@bswest pointed me towards this 2005 NY Times piece, A Lexus for Christmas? It Happens.

“I didn’t think that happened until I sat on the showroom floor and heard someone say, ‘I’m not going to pick the car up until the 24th,’” said Rosario Criscuolo, the owner of two Lexus dealerships in Michigan. “It blew my mind. But if your wife needs a car, it’s a good way to do it, right? It saves you from having to go to the malls.”

Mr. Criscuolo said that each year, about a half-dozen customers wait until Christmas Eve to pick up their new cars.

And the demand for the oversize red bows is so strong that Lexus stockpiles them in a warehouse near its North American headquarters in Torrance, Calif.

• Christmas
• Lexus