Automotive Journal

Why is there such a stigma attached to women drivers and the cars they drive? As a female who drives I don’t get why people seem to expect women to want a ‘cute’ car that looks more like something out of a cartoon – preferably in pink or lilac – regardless of whether the car is actually any good or not. Personally, I don’t think I know any women who want that.Oh ok, so maybe there are a few. But they are definitely a minority. And they unwittingly fuel a stereotype that will surely continue to follow women drivers for many years to come.

Most car manufacturers have at least one model which people consider to be their ‘girly’ option. The most obvious example is the Ford Ka, which has clearly been designed as a girly car – it’s small, cute and almost bubble shaped – and indeed about 70% of sales are to women. Other cars with a reputation for being girly include the Renault Clio and the new VW Beetle. But do women really choose to buy or lease these cars because of the way they look, or is it just that the majority of women want different things from their car than the average man?

The thing is there’s a difference between a ‘girly’ car and a car that a girl would drive. A car that’s considered girly would be small, cute and aesthetically pleasing, and many men seem to assume these are all women are looking for in a car. Actually, statistically most women base their choice more on the car’s reliability and proven performance in safety tests. Men are more likely to choose a car that’s sporty, fast and slick-looking whereas women just want something that will get them from A to B without breaking down.

Men and women also seem to have very different ideas about how much they are willing to pay for a new car. Men are far more likely to splash out on an expensive sports car, women are a lot less image conscious than men when it comes to cars. If, say, they were interested in the Audi Q7, a male customer is far more likely to want to buy it outright rather than considering other options such as Audi lease deals. It’s often less about the car itself than the image and status that comes with it – and is that really so different from choosing a car because you like its ‘girly’ shape?

In fact, given the choice and if cost was not an issue, many women would probably love to get a more expensive car. Maybe not so much an unnecessarily over-the-top sports car but something like a sleek Mercedes – they’d just probably be more likely to take a more sensible option like an affordable Mercedes lease agreement than splash their cash and buy it outright.

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