It’s an age old debate as to whether certain car designs lend themselves towards men or women.
If you’ve just read our feature you’ll see that manufacturers tend to believe aggressive cars with flared wheel arches, big alloys and low grilles are more likely to be bought by men.
If the car looks cute and friendly then it’s more likely to be driven by a woman.
And the evidence stacks up.
Take the tenth generation Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution which is a pretty angry-looking motor – 94% of drivers are male. Contrast it with the cute-looking VolksWagen Beetle Cabriolet with 90% of drivers female.
So the stats suggest there is such thing as a girl’s car and a boy’s car but what do you think? Are you a man with a Beetle Cabriolet or a woman with an Evo? Do you care who the target audience for a car is?
Find more about Volkswagen Cars
Adrian Hearn
Auto Trader Blog RSS Feed
Hi I just mused to myself whether you had looked at selling advertising on your site.I’m guessing you could do allright out of it.
My wifes car is an Mx5 and I too have faced the hair dresser/girls cars taunts. I track it, and love it, so I’ve summarised the convertible market into the boys/girls car by this rule:
Front wheel drive = girls car
Rear wheel drive = boys car
As for the tin top arguement, still working on that…let the debate rage on
…so what would be a 4×4 then, lol
most of the large, aggressive R19-245-tyred 4x4s are owned and driven by chicks.
A Single Man, May due quite well buying a barbie pink VW Cabriolet. Wherever he went all the guys would snicker at him. But every young Lady would run up to his car. Gushing at how CUTE!!! his ride was. Just a thought. I would drive a beetle. well made, comfortable, safe, with the Turbo and 5 speed. they even have a little snot to them.