Fender skirts, or something
However much I rail about this whole “girl-car” thing, I have to assume it’s not going away any time soon. I’d been going through Motor Trend’s Sport/Utility of the Year article, and the Chevrolet Equinox, while it didn’t win, garnered praise from the MT editors who served as judges, with this notable exception:
While most of us thought the Chevy was rather fetching, [Edward] Loh perceived a distinct femininity about it: “They’ll need to macho it up to grab men.”
On the very next page, they evaluated GMC’s Terrain, with the sub-headline: MANLY ENOUGH TO WIN? It’s the same damn truck; they’ve squared it off a trifle and glued on what appears to be a set of shoulder pads, but underneath it all, they’re twins, or at least Patty Duke-esque “identical cousins.”
A friend of mine is on her third pickup truck, and I once said something to her to the effect that truck manufacturers seem desperate these days to make their vehicles appear as burly as possible. She shrugged. “If I have to,” she said, “I’ll stick a big pink bow up on the roof.”
It would serve them right. (And the Terrain didn’t win, either.)
fillyjonk »
10 November 2009 · 6:46 am
“a big pink bow up on the roof”
In other words: The Hello Kitty model.
I don’t know. I have yet to meet a woman who worried that her car was too manly. Then again, in the business I am in, particularly the conservation end of it, being a little bit of a “macho girl” (in very particular ways: the car you drive, the types of field gear you wear, how well you can shoot) actually seems to appeal to the guys.
CGHill »
10 November 2009 · 7:13 am
Some years back, Ford sent over some monstrous truck — maybe an F-550 — to Automobile Magazine for staff evaluation. The guys seemed faintly disturbed by it, inasmuch as it probably wouldn’t do zero to sixty fast enough to suit them, but the women, up to and including Editor-in-Chief Jean Jennings, all wanted to drive it. (One of them, in fact, was quoted as saying simply “OH. MY. GOD.”) Jennings, in fact, admitted that perhaps her outfit that day was not ideal, given the lofty precipice that was the driver’s seat, and that something of a crowd gathered to observe her descent.
Short version: Women love trucks. And at least some guys are made queasy by the thought that women might be intruding on Their Turf.
fillyjonk »
10 November 2009 · 7:36 am
I dunno about the height thing though. I regularly complain that I (at 5′ 7″ in flats) should be issued a parachute for when I have to get out of the campus 15 passenger vans. (Which, for safety reasons, are now 10 passenger vans).
I do like being up higher when I drive; I don’t like having to climb or descend excessively to get there. I know some of my friends who have the bigger trucks, it just seems like such an effort to get in and out.
McGehee »
10 November 2009 · 11:35 am
My wife is 5’1″, and I used to have to keep a stepladder in the Bronco for when she rode in it with me. She loves the stepbar I eventually had put on.
That said, when I have an opportunity to park with the passenger side close to a curb of some kind, I am permanently encouraged to do so.