by Victor Martel

There is an interesting ongoing debate regarding the differences between the sexes and their cars.
According to the results of J.D. Power & Associates’ Power Information Network’s (PIN) most recent survey of the cars with the highest percentage of female ownership is the Volvo S40. The luxury car with the highest male ownership is the high-performance Audi RS4. It does not take a psychologist to conclude that men are more likely to buy cars with their heart and women with their head.
The RS4 has a starting price of over $66,000 and can zoom from 0 to 62 mph in 4.8 seconds. The S40 has a sticker price of around $25,000. Apparently it doesn’t matter how fast the S40 can go from 0 to 60. What does matter is that it aced the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s frontal crash test.
Interestingly enough, there wasn’t a sports car to be found in the top 10. Instead, there were sensible, entry-level cars and small SUV’s that emphasized safety, quality, reliability, and value.
Of course, that is not to say there aren’t thousands of women who don’t enjoy driving fast or wouldn’t choose a Ferrari over a minivan given the choice, but these women would seem to be the exception. To arrive at its conclusions, PIN surveyed hundreds of dealerships around the U.S. through the end of August, 2007. The nationwide sample includes about 24% of U.S. retail automotive sales, including both loans and leases, luxury and non-luxury brands, but excluding fleet sales.
So, What Do Women Want? A Volvo.
Not only did the S40 nail the top spot; the Volvo brand dominated the top 10 with three winners, which, along with the S40, included the V50 wagon at No. 7 and the S60 sedan at No. 9. Volvo was also the No. 1 luxury brand for female ownership overall, at 42.5%, vs. a luxury-brand average of 35.8%.
So how does this popularity translate to sales? Year-to-date through August, women bought or leased more than half (53%) of the Volvo S40 sedans retailed in the PIN sample, which is fairly representative of the total market. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean good news for the struggling Swedish automaker, which is a division of Ford Motor because sales as a whole for the model are weak. As of August 2007, North American sales of the S40 were 13,513, which was down about 17% year-to-date. Overall, Volvo’s North American sales were off 9.4% to 72,476, according to Automotive News.
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