Men, Women & Cars

[Bilbo]

The usual stuff: Guys are cavemen incapable of(or unwilling to engage in) serious thought.  Will women ever grow tired of having their egos so shamelessly stroked?  lol  Anyway, so all the complex calculus that women reportedly engage in in choosing a car renders the list of garbage at the bottom of this page?!  I'll take my primal need for speed in a Benz over a fucking PT Cruiser anyday.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/funonwheels/06/06/male_cars/index.html

Top cars: men vs. women
When it comes to cars, it's easy to figure out what men are after. It's women who are complicated.
June 7, 2005; Posted: 10:35 a.m. EDT (1435 GMT)

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN/Money staff writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A look at marketing data showing which cars men prefer and which ones women like revealed something I'd long suspected.

While men may, indeed, be from Mars, women are from someplace much more complex and difficult to figure out. Maybe Boston.

The figures, supplied by NOP World, a market research firm, show specific car models and an index number representing how many men -- or women -- intend to buy that car and no other compared to the percentage of their gender-mates who intend to buy the average car.

The most striking thing about NOP's data is how easy it is to figure out what guys want.

The Porsche 911 -- the most overwhelmingly male passenger car -- has an "Index Male to Total" of 214.3, for example. That's more than double the average. The car's "Index Female to Total," on the other hand, is just 14.3.

It's surprising the 911 doesn't grow hair on its hood and eat Kispy Kreme for breakfast.

Other cars at the top of the masculinity dial include the exotic Ford GT supercar, Maserati Spyder, Jaguar XK8 sports car and the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.

You get the idea: If it's very fast, awfully fast, terribly fast or way, way too fast, guys like it. Also, they tend to be expensive.

The one common trait among cars that women like is that they are not expensive.

The most womanly car, with a "Female" index of 200, is the yet-unreleased Pontiac G6 convertible. (You go, Oprah! Plus, it's a convertible.)

Actually, the G6 has a wide lead in the "girl car" category. The closest other passenger cars are the Suzuki Forenza with an index of 150 and the Volkswagen New Beetle with an index of 147.6.

How do women decide which cars to buy?

"If you picture a fraction with cost as the numerator then, as the denominator, you have things like reliability, performance..." said Doug Scott, NOP World's automotive analyst.

He went on with a long list of factors.

To sum it up, women add up the good things, subtract the bad things, then compare the result with the cost of the car. Then they think carefully about the result.

Men, it seems, just add stuff up then wonder if they can afford it without having to switch to domestic beer.

If a typical male mind -- take mine, since I'm evidently not doing much with it -- were expanded to the size of the United States of America, that portion of the mind dedicated to responding to the word "enough" would be the size of a bumper pool table in a New Jersey bar.

That portion of the brain dedicated to responding to the word "more," on the other hand, would occupy everything west of the Rockies, including Hawaii and the territories of American Samoa and Guam.

That is why the Mustang GT has four headlights. Not because men want more headlights, but because those two extra headlights -- Ford calls them "fog lights" but, really, they're headlights -- are only available on the V8-powered Mustang GT.

The male driver of a V6-powered Mustang, with its 210-horsepower engine, clearly has "enough" power. Probably more than enough.

But when stopped at a red light next to a four-lighted 300-horsepower Mustang GT it is immediately obvious to everyone that the other driver has "more."

This is the same reason that Dodge has greatly increased the size of the "Hemi" badge on its cars for the 2006 model year. The larger badge makes it very easy to see, at some distance, who has "more."

Dodge has stated outright that it designs and markets cars for men. So it has given us the Dodge Magnum, a muscle-car station wagon. It has also given us the new Dodge Charger, a muscle-car family sedan with four doors, roomy back seats and a nice trunk.

Clever, those Dodge boys. Clearly, they understand that, even though they are marketing cars to men, most men don't just go out and buy cars on their own. They still have to get the thumbs-up from someone else. Someone who knows what a "numerator" is and how to use it.

Women. Always making stuff complicated.

Top 10 cars for men

1. Porsche 911 coupe, $70,095 - $193,765

2. Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, $28,504 - $35,274

3. Ford GT, $143,345

4. Volkswagen Phaeton, $68,905 - $104,455

5. BMW 6-series convertible, $76,900

6. Jaguar XK8 coupe, $69,830

7. Maserati Spyder, $92,302 - $96,465

8. Mercedes CL, $96,720 - $132,320

9. BMW 6-series coupe, $69,900

10. Porsche 911 convertible, $79,895 - $141,995

Top 10 cars for women

1. Pontiac G6 convertible, (Not yet available)

2. Suzuki Forenza, $13,994 - $18,494

3. Volkswagen New Beetle convertible, $22,940 - $27,100

4. Volkswagen New Beetle, $17,185 - $27,100

6. Pontiac Sunfire coupe, $11,460 - $15,770

7. Volvo XC70, $36,080

8. Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible, $25,744 - $31,544

9. Chrysler PT Cruiser convertible, $20,045 - $29,120

10. Kia Rio sedan, $10,535 - $13,065

 
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/funonwheels/06/06/male_cars/index.html  

[Buddy-Rey]

This is ridiculous.  Once again they've taken a small sampling of men, a small sampling of women, and tried to apply the findings universally to both genders.

The best car I ever had was my parents' 1981 Datsun.  I was just a kid, but I loved cruising around in that thing.  I loved it because it was cute, comfortable, it rode beautifully, and went very far on a very small amount of gas.

Of course, if I had my d'ruthers, I'd be driving around in a 1957 Nash Metropolitan.  But that's another story.  

[Wookie]

Or is it that men are more likley to know of the different makes and models of exclusive high power Cars, as it is an interest to many men as a hobbie.

Where as the women are more aware of the types of cars that are spicifically targeted at them through the media!

When was the last time you saw an advert for Ford GT as opposed to Volkswagen New Beetle?

In other words (beware generalization coming up) men are more knowledgable about cars!

Wookie

[no2fembots]

This type of crap, especially when it is written by a "man" really pisses no2fembots off!

Oh! Women are SOO SMART and PRACTICAL and other hogwash!

That fucker who thinks it ever so cute to disparage his own kind!

Hey, don't the price tags on the so-called male cars cost a helluva lot more?  Ya, lets slag the boys who keep you bastards in business!

And this bears saying over and over and over again:if you are a MAN you will know how to buy your own underwear, cook your own meals and buy your own fucking car... without the help of a woman!

[FP]

"If you picture a fraction with cost as the numerator then, as the denominator, you have things like reliability, performance..." said Doug Scott, NOP World's automotive analyst.

He went on with a long list of factors.

To sum it up, women add up the good things, subtract the bad things, then compare the result with the cost of the car. Then they think carefully about the result.

This of course goes against about 75% of my personal experience with various women in my life who've bought cars. To them, style aka "cool, hip factor", color, and things like various interior options were more important than reliablility, performance, cost etc.. Are beemers in this year or is it volvo or benz in the upper middle class neighborhood? German or luxury Japanese?

Now, I've seen and known men who were lousy hagglers or who didn't care but most when going in to buy a car had done their research, especially since the net hit the majority of the public. These lists just tell me that men like their cars and dream big (I question that Phaeton tho, sure its nice but 65k for a VW? No thanks). Women (at least young women mostly) go for the "cute" factor of a small convertible/sport car.

[Buddy-Rey]

Definitely.  My mom drives around in a fairly new yellow convertible Mustang, and my dad rolls around in a boring but reliable 1991 Plymouth Voyager Minivan.  My mother's actually a year older than my father, and went through the kind of devastating midlife crisis that we normally associate with men.  With her, if it's not sporty or fast, it's not worth looking at.

[The Gonzman]

Damn, and here I sit with a ten year old clunker for general utility, a recent vintage truck for working, and a really old beat up dodge truck for the filthy stuff.

All chosen for price and reliability, even though I could afford much more and still not have to drink domestic beer.

*sigh* Guess I have to have my testicles revoked.  Who do I send them to?

[Davie_boy]

Hmmm...

I wonder what the results would be if they did a study about clothings, most especially shoes.

It's called cherry-picking. So what, guys like fast, expensive cars, or us nerds like fancy, expensive, high-powered PCs? Set women loose in a mall and it's the same type of feeding frenzy with clothes and shoes.

I recall reading an article not too long ago where some scientists made just this distinction between men and women (i.e., men lose control in electronics stores, while women lose control in shopping malls) and came up with some theories about this kind of behavior relating to primitive hoarding instincts, because way back when, enough just never really was enough.

Of course, that kind of logic doesn't exist at CNN or the NYT, where the stink of . . . well, something is overriding the logic of the male staff members there.

[Arte Grey]

..and the folks with families all wind up with SUVs or mini-vans anyway...

Very different advertising styles are used for women vs men....
http://standyourground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5502
Vehicles for women/families are marketed on the basis of appearance and what they will carry + any "amenities."  Advertisers often add "emotional" appeals for that target group (ads using actors, storylines).

Truck ads often don't use any visible actors.  Just performance:price incentuive data and the vehicle zooming down a highway or spinning on a dealership platform.

[SouthernGuy]

Women aren't judged by the cars they drive, men defintely are like it or not. A woman doesn't have to worry about having power or status to attract a man, we for the most part don't care about that. She could almost work at McDonalds and if she's attractive and interesting, we'd date her. Doesn't work that way for men. Really, it makes complete sense that men would go for cars that represent power and status, which is what WOMEN respond to and want in men.

SG

[Ken67]

I don't believe these statistics.Then again, I don't believe any statistics.I am happy with the same car that I have been driving for the last ten years:my 1989 Chevy Caprice.It actually runs better now than it did in 1995.But that  dang headliner has begun to sag. :wink:

[fezzik]

Five years from now when that PT Cruiser's transmission fails, or that Kia Rio starts looking less-than-new, she's both going right back to the dealer to trade her car in on something shinier. The 911? He's going to be driving that car 30 years from now.

[Swift]

And here's another twist that wasn't thrown into the equation....

What kind of cars would women want/get if it was their husband/boyfriend who was paying for it rather than the women themselves??

I bet you'd see a whole different list for the women....