What Ladies Want in a Vehicle

In this Car Chat, we talk with the folks at Bob Tyler Toyota about what ladies want in a vehicle.

Bob Tyler asked ladies for their thoughts and here are a few of their responses:

Ashley – Pretty
Asheton – Lots of storage space for small things
Shannon – Lighted mirror
Judy - Smooth ride & fast acceleration. 
Alice - comfort, strong AC in this heat, and good gas mileage!
Norma-Jean - Value, dvd for kids, nav, and reliabilty. Fuel econ, is a given
Lisa - I'm tall so I look for enough leg room and make sure that my head doesn't touch the roof
Cinda - Fuel econ and luxury
Janiene - Fuel economy and not spending time in the shop

Women like their cars small, inexpensive, foreign and hot. No, not hot in the muscular looks, twin-turbo powerplant and growling exhaust note sense. Actually hot. They like to crank the heater up.

That's the conclusion of a pair of new surveys on women and cars.

The point isn't academic. It affects the bottom line for automakers worldwide. Researchers have concluded that women are directly responsible for 45 percent of new car purchases, and have input into 80 percent. So, despite generations of juvenile taunts, automakers today want to build chick cars -- it's where the money is.

To find out just what that means, the analysts at TrueCar.com looked at the registrations of more than 13 million vehicles over the past two years. They found that just 36 percent of new cars were registered to women. But the cars registered to women show a few clear trends.

Size Matters, and They Like ' em Small

The researchers found nine models of car that were bought by women more often than men. All nine were small cars, or small  SUVs . Not one was even midsize.

They weren't all cute compact cars. The list actually featured more small SUVs than anything else. As manufacturers have moved toward car-based crossover SUVs, compact SUVs have increasingly become an alternative to midsize cars. They offer cargo space when it's needed, but are still nimble and easy to drive. Women are driving this trend, buying curvaceous small SUVs more often than men.

We should note, however, that the survey only looked at the gender on the registration form. Some women may register a car in their own name when they're young and single, but register the family car in their partner's name later in life, skewing the numbers toward the sorts of cars that appeal to the young.

They Don't Like to Waste Money

Of the ten auto brands bought most often by women, just one -- Lexus – is clearly a luxury marque. For the most part, women like affordable cars.

These cars are missing things that drive prices up, like more powerful engines and  luxury  badges. But some are known for offering an impressive interior at an affordable price. It's possible to get leather seating, Bluetooth, a top-shelf audio system and a navigation screen without spending a bundle. You just won't get a well-known luxury nameplate or a V8 in the process. For many women buyers, that's apparently just fine.

They Find Foreigners More Attractive

American automakers may be in the midst of a recovery, but they haven't won over the affections of women yet. Of the ten brands women were most likely to buy in TrueCar.com's study, not one was domestic. Asian automakers Like Toyota, seem to have special insight into the mind of the American female, taking nine of the top ten slots.

Of the ten brands they were least likely to buy, three were domestic – including heavyweight Chevrolet . It's not just General Motors that has work to do to win over women, either. Ford missed making the bottom ten list by less than half a percentage point.

To be fair, this could change as the Big Three start to bring out attractive, feature-filled new small cars like the Ford Fiesta and Chevy Cruze later this year.

They Like it Hot

A second survey shows that women like their cars hotter than men do. Literally -- about 70 percent of respondents in relationships said that the male partner wanted the temperature lower than the female partner -- and women tend to win the argument.

They Don't Want Men to Drive What They Drive

So, should guys unlucky in love buy a VW Bug? TrueCar.com's results don't address that question, but there are plenty of reasons to believe that a practical, inexpensive small car may be what women want for themselves...but not in their dates.

Last year, University of Wales researchers asked women to judge the attractiveness of men when shown a photo, and told what car each man drove. The result? Women find the same man more attractive when told he drives a more expensive car. When the genders were reversed, men showed no tendency to find women more or less attractive based on the car they drive.

So yes, she wants a small, reasonably-priced foreign car, and she wants it warm. But don't drive one if you want her attention.

Bob Tyler Toyota
7201 Pensacola Blvd.
Pensacola, FL
850-478-9999
www.bobtylertoyota.com