What Constitutes a Chick Car?
When Henry Ford first started producing automobiles to realize his dream of a car for the common man, a car was, well, a car. Although an object of desire, it was still an object. It did not have a persona nor did it have a gender. Although in the early days, most of the drivers were men. However, the invention of the electric starter put women in the driver’s seat.
And once women started to drive cars it naturally followed that sooner or later women would start to buy cars. So men bought cars, women bought cars and couples bought cars together. However, along with technology, car manufacturing became more and more sophisticated in its effort to appeal to a buying public. At first, we heard the words sports car, sedan, luxury car, hardtop, and convertible.
Then not so long ago, the phrase “guy car” and “chick car” started to pop up. These categories were established by young buyers not by grandmothers driving Lincoln Continentals or soccer moms in a SUV.
So just what is a “chick car?” It is not, as the name might suggest, a means of transport for chickens. It is a car owned and driven by women but not all women. However, it is hard to define, as there are so many definitions. Urban dictionary defines a chick car as “a car that is mostly driven by females, but is occasionally driven by males.”
As an example, they cite the Volkswagen Beetle. However, Volkswagen sold over a million Beetles, so some men must have driven them more than occasionally. Another definition given is “a car that looks sporty, but has an automatic transmission,” with the accompanying remark that “no man with two legs would ever drive a car with an automatic transmission.” Again, many men own and drive cars with automatic transmissions.
A third classification reads “any sports car that is available only with a four-cylinder engine and an automatic transmission. While the automatic transmission is questionable, the four-cylinder engine has some validity, as men are known to favor powerful engines where as women consider economy. In analyzing the buying habits of men and women who love and buy sports cars, most women limit their purchases to $30,000.00 while men shoot for the $100,000 mark.
Another definition reads, “Any car painted in pink, light blue, or champagne is a chick car.” This might be more meaningful as it is difficult to imagine a Fortune 500 executive, a truck driver, or a construction worker behind the wheel of a pink car.
And finally a “chick car” can be categorized according to the buyer’s perception. The car has to be perceived as reliable – a car that can be depended on to make it to its destination. In this category, most Japanese cars were identified as “chick cars” while British cars were categorized as “guy cars.”
Examples that have been given of “chick cars” in addition to most Japanese cars, are the new VW Beetle in any color but black (black makes it a guy car); the Mazda Miata, the VW Rabbit convertible, and the VW Jetta.
However, in the final analysis, “chick car” may be synonymous with beauty. It is all in the eyes of the beholder.
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