Thelma and Louise sought top-down glory in a light blue ’66 Ford Thunderbird convertible. Carol Brady settled for a Plymouth station wagon, an eminently practical choice — and about as exciting as a soft-boiled egg. The luxury vehicles with the highest percentage of women drivers today aren’t at either of these extremes. Rather, they’re some of the most well-balanced cars out there, from a shapely, sporty BMW roadster to a quartet of safe yet chic Volvos.
“The common denominator with most of the vehicles on this list is that they’re all sophisticated, refined vehicles with complex surfacing and highly-evolved design,” says Imre Molnar, dean of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Mich., where he runs one of the world’s largest transportation design programs.
Molnar calls out the “flame surfacing” that chief BMW designer Chris Bangle employed — sometimes controversially — when creating the BMW Z4, which heads up our list of the top 10 luxury cars driven by women. The Z4's body blends convex and concave shapes inspired by a flame. When designing the car, Bangle even commissioned a group of dancers so that he could model the roadster's form in part based on their spontaneous body movements. "Women are responding to this fluid, organic, inspired form,” Molnar says.
Besides sophistication, women are also looking for subtlety. “I think women have such a good eye for detail,” says Vicki Vlachakis, designer of the Saturn Sky, which is popular with women, according to CNW Marketing Research data, but isn't on our list because it's not a luxury car. “The attention to detail is really important on the interior; on all of the key driving interfaces such as the gauges, shifter area, steering wheel and seats.”
Styling and aesthetics alone won't win women over, though. “To put it bluntly, women are more practical than men when it comes to cars,” says Art Spinella of CNW Marketing Research. “Whereas men tend to buy cars that are more testosterone-based and macho [see our men's list], women are into cars that are sophisticated and sensible.” The Lexus IS, which ranks 10th, offers strong performance from two available V6 engines, but still returns decent gas mileage at an estimated average of 27 mpg for combined city/highway driving in the IS 250. Likewise the sporty BMW Z4, which cranks out more than 200 hp but gets 30 mpg on the highway.
by Stephen Milioti
