Cars most driven by Men vs. Cars most driven by Women
A couple interesting links from Forbes Autos with slideshows of the top 10 cars driven by men (or bought by men, anyway) and the top 10 owned/driven by women.
We men sure have different priorities...the "right" priorities, in my opinion. ;)
I'm kinda surprised by the men's #1, but the #1 for women is no surprise at all...it's so "cute". :)
That's funny...I wouldn't drive most of the cars on the men's list, which makes sense, but the same is true for the women's list as well! I'll pass on the SUVs, crossovers, and true econoboxes, thank you. I guess the cars that appeal to me are more gender-neutral!
Jad, the only car on the women's list I've been remotely considering is the Hyundai Elantra, and I'd only want the 5-door Touring that's coming out for 2009. The Fit and Yaris are remote possibilities but are both just too funny-looking for me. Oh, but I suppose I wouldn't turn down the Z4 if someone wanted to give one to me. :) The men's cars are just too macho.
Personally, I'm in the market for a car in the next month or so. I'm almost definitely getting a Mazda3, but I also looked at the Subaru Impreza and Toyota Matrix, which weren't on either list.
I think Craig's got it right. The men's cars are the high-priced toys and the women's are mainly for single women who put the car in their own name because there was no other option. I also think a lot of couples may put the car under the person with the better credit score's name regardless of the driver, at least for financing or insurance purposes. I think that in the case of many middle-aged and older couples, the cars may be in the man's name for that reason.
Very interesting, but not my taste either. Italian cars are to fussy. German to expensive for what you get. British, inbetween both of the above mentioned.
I will stick to my Ranger, although broken down right now, I can always fix it myself without to much.
I agree with your points, but I think these lists are more of a most-likely-driven-by-a-man (or most-likely-driven-by-a-woman) type of list..if that makes sense.
For example, the #1 car on the men's list is probably not the most popular men's car or car most desired by men...but when looking at who DOES buy that car, it has the highest percentage of men vs women owners.
In other words, the men's list is full of "guy cars" and the women's list could be thought of as a list of "chick cars"....
Haha :) hey bscar, I remember you posting some pics of your new rims...speaking of what we drive, got any photos of what those wheels were attached to?
If money were no object, I would take any (or all) of the Aston Martin, BMW 6 series, Ferrari or Lamborghini. The Viper doesn't do anything the Italian cars don't do better. Forget the rest of the list; you'd have to pay me handsomely to tolerate any of them.
The one thing about the women's list that surprises me is the presence of the BMW Z4. I would have expected it to be a guy's car.
I'm surprised the Mitsubishi Eclipse did not make the list. Every time I see one it's a girl/lady driving it. Back when they were sold the same goes for the Ford Probe.
IMO that list is mostly about the income gap between men and (probably single) women who register cars in their own names. May of the "men's" cars are just toys that only a fairly affluent man would be likely to buy (have you ever seen a woman driving a maybach?), other "men's" cars are family cars that men probably have bought for the family/wife but registered in their own names for some reason (the GL-class is just a mini-van).
Most of the "women's" cars seem to be low cost transportation that tend to be owned by single 20-something women. I wonder how they account for cars that are registered in both spouses' names (like my cars are). There seem to be tons of women driving higher priced cars that aren't on the list (i.e., SLKs seem to be almost exclusively driven by young women); I have to assume that many of these cars are not registered in their names only.
Aha! I figured out why the lists are so different from reality! They're compiled by "experts"!
Other than the Porsches and perhaps the Rolls I see nothing really exciting in any of the selections. The lists can be broken down into a few categories: (1) completely useless unobtainable exotica, (2) suburban transports, and (3) nothing fancy, and (4) commonly seen second cars (Mustang). Well, there there were the Rolls and the Porsches.
It appears that the list was just a survey of which gender registered which cars, I don't thing there was any opinion included in the list. Many of the expensive cars are registered in such small numbers that a fairly small numerical difference results in a large percentage difference (i.e., it said that only 156 maybachs were sold in the U.S. last year). The generic-mobiles are sold in such large numbers that the percentage difference is always going to be small.
I wanted to get the 1.4 diesel Yaris with the multi-mode transmission ...but the trunk was a bit too small. Everyone says it's kind of a "chick" car but I think that's bunk.
The women's list is more realistic (surprise?) but boring. If I wanted something fun and available in the US, I might go for a Subaru Legacy four-door saloon, not the wagon. However, since I don't live in the US, my options are a bit wider. My wife and I opted for the Citroen C4 (2009 model), 5-door hatchback. Practical and cool-looking.
If I had all the money in the world, I still make sure that the vehicle was worth a quarter of a million dollars before I bought it.
Partial checklist to see if it's worth a quarter of a million bucks:
Altimeter
Rate of climb indicator
Airspeed indicator
IFR instrumentation
