Registration records of new 2005 and 2006 models cars from January 2006 to the present reveal much about American men's and women's preferences for cars.
Overall, men tend to love luxurious, high performance cars, preferably with a horsepower of 367 or more (for women, the top five models had an average 172 hp). On the other hand, women prefer cars that are affordable, practical and safe, and with a dash of design flair, as evidenced by the Eclipse Spyder convertible, which had the highest percentage of female registrants of any car on the market. It was followed by Toyota Motor's RAV4 sport utility vehicle (SUV).Another Eclipse model, the hardtop Eclipse coupe, ranked as fourth highest in registration, marking it out as a true women's car.
The survey prompted one observer to comment that the 2003 movie "2 Fast 2 Furious" prominently featured the Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder but that it was portrayed as a man's car belonging to the angry, muscular ex-convict played by Tyrese Gibson. In the movie, the Gibson character drove a purple Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder.
It was an interesting point. Registration records do, in fact, indicate that men tend to buy feminine cars but women rarely purchase male-oriented, testosterone-fueled sports and luxury cars. For instance, the Eclipse Spyder, which is the most popular car among women, was also the car of choice among 34.2% of male registrants.
On the other hand, when it came to the most popular male vehicles in the market, registration figures showed that women don't seem to be all that interested. For instance, not a single woman registered Honda Motor's Acura NSX sports car this year while only 1.8% of registrants of DaimlerChrysler's Mercedes-Benz S55 AMG performance sedan have been women.
As far as particular brands are concerned, the idea that you can sell a woman's car to a man, but you can't sell a man's car to a woman also holds true .The brand that has had the highest percentage of female registrants so far this year, General Motors' Pontiac subsidiary, still sells cars to a buying populace that is 47% male. Meanwhile, DaimlerChrysler's Dodge subsidiary, which has the highest percentage of male registrants -- and only 14.8% of people who have registered a Dodge this year have been women.