Sex is used to sell almost anything and cars are no exception. Of course, whether or not a car conveys any sex appeal is largely a consequence of the persons we associate with it and less a result of deliberate efforts to imbue a given make and model with racy allure. In this way, sexiness is not unlike hipness and when it comes to cars, I find they often go hand in hand. What I’d love to know is how others feel about the topic. Which cars do you most frequently see driven by those whom you find attractive and conversely, which cars do you feel boost their driver’s image, making them appear more attractive?
For some reason, I associate Volkswagen “new” Beetles with cute college co-eds, but when I roll up next to them I’m usually disappointed.
I associate Range Rovers with attractive middle aged women.
My wife told me before that, when the kids are grown up and we don’t need a “family” vehicle, she wants something fun like a new Beetle. That won’t be for a long time yet though.
Why, Ford Focuses, of course. Like the one I drive. 🙂
BMW Mini, BMW 3-series coupe and the Mercedes CLA.
I’ve noticed the same thing. Good-looking (or at the very least, people who dress well and put put their best foot forward, appearance-wise) go for the German cars. (Full disclosure, I once owned a 1966 Volkswagen fastback.)
They can often be ass-hats, but good-looking ass-hats
As a VW owner I have to agree with that statement!
Tahoes, God help me.
My wife drives a gray Fusion. It’s the quiet ones you’ve got to look out for. 🙂
fixed gear bicycles.
+1
+10
This should be a fun read… 🙂
I think it depends on what you’re looking for: High School / College girls I usually see in something second-hand and cheap. Kias, Mitsubishi Eclipses, V6 Mustangs, Ford Focus, Chevy Cobalt/Cruze, Honda Civic. Preferably the coupe versions of these cars. But the boys at that age also drive the same cars.
If it’s the working professional woman that you desire then, I’d look for a Lexus SUV.
There are types that you’ll only see in Subarus and Priuses. I need to watch myself here as I have these types in the family 🙂
I always expect to see a woman in a VW or a Fiat 500, but I usually only see them driven by men who wear turtlenecks. 🙂
Subaru Foresters….
White Japanese utilities have more than their share of hotties. If you go for tattooed fit tradies.
… in sensible shoes
Lol, that’s true here in NZ too. Although they (the utes, not the tradies!) mostly have over-large wheels.
Jeep Wranglers.
FIAT 500 has tried to position itself as the ultimate chic(k) car, but Im not sure it’s working.
What do you mean by that? After all, I bought one :p
Short bed, short cab Ford ranger, of course! (Thats what my husband drives, haha). It fits his personality… two doors, stick shift, and a Truxedo says “youthful and fun” and the 2.3L engine and truck bed with an old Craftsman toolbox says “practical and willing to work hard”.
Of my most attractive friends… One drives an Olds Alero and everyone else rocks a Bombardier Flexity Swift
I consider myself an attractive person, and I drive an ’83 El Camino.
I usually expect to see a beautiful young lady driving an old Barina or Corolla hatchback with a green P down here.
I am increasingly seeing well dressed guys driving brand new XR6s or SSVs. VF Calais are carting fancy families too. Surprising, to say the least.
GTI/Golf R drivers are usually plicks, so I don’t bother to see who’s driving.
“I associate Range Rovers with attractive middle aged women.” Ditto, same goes for recent model Discos.
You will find an attractive woman behind the wheel of a dark red E34 M5.
I have also seen plenty of beautiful ladies driving convertible Saabs. I remember a particular blonde driving a later vintage black 9-3 with the top down.
Hmm, let’s see…
She drives a Buick Century, an F-150, or a white whale of a Ford E-150. She used to drive a Crown Victoria, a Taurus, an Escort, and another Escort. She’s also driven a Seville, a Gran Fury, a Town Car, a Cutlass Supreme, and a few Wagoneers. There was also a LeBaron wagon in the mix as well as a ’70 Mustang. Plus she even dabbled with an LTD Crown Victoria a time or two and even a 3/4 ton Dodge pickup. There was even that Focus she drove like a rented pack mule because it was.
She hasn’t yet tackled a Galaxie.
That’s what I can remember her driving and she could drive all of them in high-heels.
Mrs. Jason?
Sounds like the lady who lives across the street…
.
Oops
Why, yes, it is.
…
Minis and Land Rovers.
Late model Honda’s for stereotypically fit attractive women.
Full size SUVs/CUVs for MILFs.
18 to 25 year old co-eds drive whatever Daddy gave them.
Out here in corn and bean country, I’ve seen more than a few ‘head turners’ in huge 4wd farm trucks.
From what I’ve seen in Texas, the bigger the truck, the smaller the girl. A jacked up 4×4 dually crewcab longbed will be driven by some 4’11” girl that might be 100 pounds soaking wet. A standard cab minitruck will be driven by someone who has a good personality, but is rather generous in size.
You must have seen my brother’s stepdaughter driving his F150 4X4 😀 .
I’m usually studying the car rather than the driver! And hey, we’re all beautiful inside! I do remember several years ago when I had my Nissan Skyline (dark grey paint with red pearl, factory body kit/spoilers, dark grey deep-dish drift-spec alloys), a younger friend telling me that him being seen in it did great things for his reputation! Come to think of it, most of my friends enjoyed being seen in it as it was a great-looking car. I couldn’t care less what people thought of me in it, I bought it and enjoyed it because it was superb fun to fling around winding roads, and with the manual trans, K&N filter and big exhaust, it sounded AMAZING!
One time during a traffic jam last summer, I looked over at a silver Ford LTD Crown Victoria 88′ or 89′ model across from me, in good shape except for some paint issues. The driver was an attractive 20 something girl smoking a cigarette (ugh).
I have not never, and will not ever, date a girl that does not smoke. Women who smoke tend to be more, um, fun 🙂
My brother-in-law refuses to date women with teeth. Same sort of concept.
“If she smoke, she pokes”?
“She got a real pretty mouth, ain’t she ?”
Aaghh…these pictures are horrifying. You know what they say about kissing someone who smokes, it’s like licking an ashtray. Not that I would know, but yuck.
Agreed, the girls that smoke do tend to be the dirty girls. The problem is they look good in their 20s but then they age horribly and look like crap. Better to look harder for the dirty girls that don’t smoke… they do exist…
My wife doesn’t smoke but the girls that do you really don’t want to take home to meet your mom usually smoke.
But for a great time to tell your son, yeah, they are worth it!
That red VW convertible reminds me of a commercial I first saw years ago…it is one of a series of ads that has a lot of good curbside classics in it. The commercial can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl2268uCSrI
Most unusual car / gal pairing that I’ve seen is an attractive early 20’s brunette driving a mint condition, bright red ’65 Dodge Coronet two-door hardtop woth polished Centerline wheels and a “Thrush” muffler bumper sticker on the back window. I’ve seen her several times, actually, driving through the Torrance area.
That was many years ago. She’s probably married / divorced with three kids and driving a a proper mom-mobile by now.
There’s a good looking young girl around my neck of the woods that drives a MINT E24 6 Series. Now that’s what I’m talking about.
Generalizing can be fun:
In SoCal some of the younger and more attractive of either gender frequently can be found behind the wheel of the M-B C-class and BMW 1- and 3-series. The CLA 250 is rapidly becoming their new favorite. The great lease packages work miracles for those with image needs and tight budgets.
Porsche drivers are mostly male and frequently are either older versions of Christian Bale’s character in American Hustle (at least in terms of the bad hair and sometimes the clothes as well) or young, tattooed drug dealers/rock performers with hair cut/styled in the best shops of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.
I’ll stop there but needless to say, traffic is so dense in LA’s west side (and most everywhere else in SoCal) that observing who drives what can be as welcome a distraction as the smartphone.
I forgot to throw the Audi A4 into the above mix for the young and hip. However, to emphasize that generalizations are just that, a retired lawyer female friend just last week took delivery of a new A4 (that we factory-ordered in December).
In the Portland metro area, dashingly handsome men who look like Rich from Hardcore Pawn with a little Richard Rawlings style tend to drive black Rumble Bees…HA!
On one hand, I pay attention to any low level Mustang, Camaro, Firebird. All Chrysler 300s or late 90s Thunderbirds in nice condition. These tend to be the choice of mid 30s to mid 40s buttrocker type babes. Still have their bad girl ways, if mellowed a bit but a full collection of Bon Jovi and Motley Crue CDs.
On the other hand, Dodge Swingers, Chevy IIs, or other mid-late 60s compacts are always something to watch. Yes, usually its just another hipster wearing her grannies clothes but theres also a decent chance that its a rockabilly/pinup bettie. If she has fetish bangs, jet black hair (bonus points for streaks in red, purple, pink or blue) with a rose in it, a TON of tattoos, smokes camels drinks whisky and never leaves the house without her red lips and nails…JACKPOT. Any woman who gets her inspirations from Bettie Page, Elvira, Patricia Day, Kat Von D, etc has a solid chance of being the future ex Mrs MoparRocker.
Jeep Wranglers tend to be the choice of younger single guys. Ive owned 5…well 3 of them were CJs…but I consider myself to be a decent looking dude (backed up by some VERY foxy ladies) and many have said that I fit the jacked up Jeep demographic. As to ladies that rock the 7 slots, most tend to be pretty tomboyish. Now, SOME might find a girl who goes around in jeans and t-shirt, minimale makeup and usually in a ballcap to be plenty cute, that just AINT my bag. Just my opinion.
Now, we cant talk about the cars of attractive people without mentioning the cars of very homely folk….
Minivans and CUVs are usually driven by some formerly hot looking ladies. I say formerly, because you can sometimes see the wild carefree vixen of days past. Now, between 10 years of marriage and a few kids later…not so much. 20-40 pounds heavier and no time/money/desire to get her hair/nails done or go to the gym you can just see the once hot looking babe trapped in this nightmare.
Subaru outbacks are the choice of some *ahem* butch types of ladies. No judgement here, but we’ve all seen it. She-mullets, unite!
Hybrids/electrics tend to be driven by some pretty dag-nasty types. 99 out of 100 can be filtered into a few basic types:
1: Rob Reiner lookalike guy. You’ve seen this one…grossly overweight, red faced, and of course grey donut hair. Likely a professor at the local university, he always has the jacket with the patches on the elbows and sets his radio to NPR and rips off the knob.
2: Fat dumpy middle aged woman. Her face is chiseled into a permanent scowl, dingy baggy pastel sweatshirts are comfy and hide the ravages of a few kids. She gave up on life, and fun long ago….hence the perfect choice of wheels. Its easy to imagine her being the mother in law from hell coming at ya in the fast lane doing 10 mph under the speed limit!
3: Pencil neck bureaucrat guy. This scrawny, walnut headed little shit likely spent the bulk of the 6th-12th grade in his locker with an atomic wedgie and smarting from a few ‘hurts donuts’. Now, he spends his days in the employ of the DMV, IRS, OSHA, or some other worthless government agency. Giving nothing back to society, he gets his revenge on the ‘cool kids’ by tying them up with endless miles of red tape, levying fines for the most inane of infractions and generally spreading universal misery.
4: Turtle headed organic lady. This is where the hipster girls are headed, guys. You’ve seen this type. In fact, I think this is the most common of hybrid/electric drivers. She’s an aging hippie and clings to the organic/biodegradable/green/sustainable trend like grim death…which is close! Thick glasses, check. Greying mouse brown hair, check. Big itchy sweater, check. And of course, she has a thin frail build and the turtle head look. That’s the one where her head doesn’t sit on top of her shoulders, but her neck does this weird creepy 45 degree slant forward. YIKES.
Late model Corvettes seem to be piloted by mid life crisis guys. Not always, but usually behind the wheel is some old fat guy who never puts his foot in the thing and is simply posing. Granted, no one wants to drive an old persons car but at the same time, Ive noticed some weird trends with these. A buick painted in a metallic beige, slushbox tranny, and with lots of chrome trim is nothing out of the ordinary, but a Corvette done up like this? Who does that? If youre going to spend $60K on a sportscar, why castrate it? Go balls to the wall with a wild color, loud pipes and drive it like you stole it! I say if the point of the car is to reclaim your youth then BE that guy. Any jackass can spend money but it means nothing if you aren’t living the part.
Nowadays good looking people could be driving what they can afford. Now well off good looking people are easier to stereotype. It seems image and what you drive today is not like the 80’s, 90’s. A lot of people drive blandmobiles because they care less about image as far as what their car says about them. Probably because most cars look more or less the same today. More appliance like. Do good looking people have a particular brand of washer and drier?
Why, yes we do. Maytag it is.
I have GE. So I”m Good Enough!
Yes, I just today bought a new bottom of the line Simpson dryer (has an on/off button and a timer) cos I’m good lookin’ but cheap!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but young women mostly drive a Mini, Fiat 500 or other (and cheaper) small hatchbacks like Toyota Aygo, VW Up, Ford Ka etc.
Talking suits drive Audi-BMW-Mercedes. As the drivers get older and climb the ladder the model gets bigger. So, roughly said, Audi A3 -> A4 -> A6 -> (maybe) A8. Same for the other 2 brands.
And a truck driver drives a truck, a bus driver a bus, a farmer a farm tractor and a contractor a Mercedes E-class diesel.
Cougars in Mercedes SLK’s
Do Cougars drive Cougars?
Actually, I think that might have contributed to the name. Back thru the ’90s, if you saw a late model Cougar or T-bird, chances were strong that a really hot looking 40-ish fox was behind the wheel. Cougars were almost exlusively driven by women, T-birds could go either way, it seemed.
anything except what I drive.
To me the ultimate stereotype driver is the driver of a Chrysler Sebring or 200 convertible: Invariably mid-40’s, anywhere from 20-40 pounds overweight, bleached blonde hair in something resembling a trendy hairstyle, clothes-that-were-fashionable-yesterday. Definitely someone past her prime, but damned and determined not to admit to it.
Toyota Solstice convertible drivers are about the same, but a bit better kept, and not as badly overweight.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone under the age of thirty driving one of those two cars.
The blonde driving the yellow Corvette convertible (license plate “2Hot4U”) on I-465 around Indianapolis was guilty of false advertising.
I think this is very dependent on where you live. Out in the country is going to be very different from the city. I live in Florida so all bets are off:
Cool sexy younger women — Jeep Wranglers
Hot MILF Trophy wives — Range Rovers or Escalades
Trashy hot girls — Mitsubishi Eclipse
Girls aren’t my type, but I can see how certain cars attract certain groups of females. Same goes for guys – just so you know – and I would be happy to go over those during Pride Month.
Of all the guys I’ve dated, not one drove a Miata. I’m disappointed.
We’ve got one, Jim, but its co-owned with my husband! I was a little concerned that I was fulfilling a stereotype, but I love that car for what it is, a supremely fun drivers’ car.
When I lived in San Diego a few years back, seemed like every gay guy in town drove a Jeep Wrangler, and on warm days, almost always shirtless. It was a sub-cultural studmobile.
“Stay classy San Diego!”
Atlanta is exactly the same with the Wranglers. I always laugh when people think it’s Miatas that are Gay
Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, and this is so stereotypical, but I did once know a gay guy in San Diego who drove a Miata. He was quite the young pretty boy, everything about him was picture perfect, including the car. He later acquired a Porsche Boxster, go figure that one.
And now the correct Deliverance quote:
“He got a real pretty mouth, ain’t he ?”
You got me, I thought that face looked familiar, but it’s been a long time since I saw Deliverance.
I throw my full support behind this phenomenon… Unless they don’t keep their pits trimmed. Armpit hair is just gross on everyone.
The gays up here in the frozen north don’t seem to coalesce around any particular car. I figure its a combination of our deeply ingrained Scandinavian modesty and the fact that Loring Park (the big gayborhood here) is a five minute walk from downtown Minneapolis.
The gals on the other hand seem to like the stereotypical Subarus and small pickups. Practical, those ladies.
In the early 2000s, the VW Jetta MK4 seemed to be very popular in Vancouver’s West End and in Seattle’s Capital Hill district, then it became the MINI Cooper and now it seems to be 3 series BMWs. I am going by my group of friends through the years, and what they seemed to buy or lease. Small premium SUVs seem to be the next trend – GLKs, Q5s, X3s.
Now THATS a mindbender. I don’t think Ive EVER seen a gay male driving a Wrangler. Every other Jeep SUV, at some point yes. Gay women on the other hand, every so often. Back in college, I worked at Sears and had a really good repeat customer who was the definition of butch and just got a new TJ Sport. For all intent and purposes, she was a dude in a female body so it made a lot of sense.
The gay lead character in the 1999 UK TV series Queer as Folk drove a Wrangler.
Yeah, I live between Memphis and Little Rock and there really isn’t a definable vehicle but I would say a new or late model Nissan Altima would be a good bet for nice looking ladies.
1967 Thunderbird.
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2088/2881/1600/thelma-louise_28.jpg
Actually that was a ’66 Thunderbird. Great movie, great car!
Alfa Romeo’s !!!
I’m not real sure what the purty people drive, but the interesting ones drive old English sports cars.
Here in NJ, 99% of all “new” Volkswagens are driven by women.Age varies from late teens to mid 60s. A a matter of fact, the only time I saw a man driving the “new” VW, it had a bumper sticker saying “Its not what you think.It`s the wife`s car”`Nuff said?