What Do Women Want?
Car Makers Bet On Luxury Crossovers
March 15, 2008
By Martha Thomas
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The question of what women want has puzzled men — and marketers — ever since the first woolly mammoth bone was whittled into a necklace.
Today, when women influence 85 percent of automotive sales, carmakers really want to know what’s in women’s heads. According to the most recent J.D. Power automotive survey, women look at five main things when choosing a vehicle: reliability/durability, interior comfort, exterior styling, quality of workmanship and gas mileage.
“The primary thing that women look for when they’re shopping for a car is the safety features,” Courtney Caldwell, editor in chief and publisher of Road & Travel magazine, told www.bankrate.com. “They do a lot of shopping on safety features for a vehicle because they have concerns for their own personal safety as well as that of their family and their child.”
So which vehicles fit the bill? On the whole, women with children learn toward minivans or crossover vehicles — with increasing emphasis on the latter. Crossovers are the smaller, nimbler sisters of SUVs and are booming in popularity with women.
When it comes to “luxury” vehicles with the highest percentage of female ownership, J.D. Power reports that the modest Volvo S40 sedan (which starts at about $24,000) holds the top spot. Men favor the Audi RS4, a 420-horsepower sedan that goes from 0 to 60 in less than five seconds and guzzles gallons of gasoline about as fast. The J.D. Power study concluded, predictably, that women favor safety over snazz. My conclusion is that women don’t want a $70,000 car that is so loud you can’t hear yourself think, much less sing along with Joni Mitchell.
In reality, the situation is not so polarized. Carmakers, paying attention to women, offer vehicles that combine high-end features, safety, style and space. Here are two good options, both luxury-model crossovers:
The Buick
Forget your father’s Buick. The new Enclave is the mother mobile du jour. It replaces a handful of GM vehicles, including both mini-van (the Terraza) and SUV (the Rendezvous), and the manufacturer expects impressive sales results.
The Enclave has all the comforts and features that women want and it’s pretty too. The introductory color is mocha with silver jewelry and a beige interior with touches of wood grain. Picture a brown cashmere outfit with sterling silver earrings and a tortoiseshell headband. (And, believe it or not, the vehicle even has blue eyes. Ooh la la!) Base prices range from $32,790 to $36,900.
But girly-girly it’s not: The Enclave has a beefy exterior, with a showy front grille. Inside, GM designers made sure that adults can comfortably rest their feet on the floor, even in the third row. All the seats fold flat, creating an enormous, 116-cubic-foot cargo area. (The Volvo has 93 cubic feet of space.) I was able to slide a bulky Ikea wardrobe right in and close the hatch.
An optional “driver confidence” package includes a back-up monitor as well as a beeper warning system to keep you from bumping fenders — or worse — as you park.
A couple of criticisms: When in use, the ceiling-mounted DVD for backseat passengers blocks the driver’s rear view. And the beefy B-pillars, when combined with a passenger’s head, make peripheral visibility tough. But the oversized side mirrors are a help and can be programmed to tilt when you’re backing up.
My only other criticism of the Enclave is that it’s somewhat underpowered. The acceleration is sluggish — not a help when zooming onto the freeway or passing or changing lanes.
The Mercedes
Years ago in New York, I drove a brand-new Mercedes M-class down to a Soho gallery to pick up a painting. I can’t remember what the painting was or why I was picking it up, but I remember double-parking the swanky 1998 vehicle on lower Broadway. A chic young woman in head-to-toe black helped me load the painting, then laughed disdainfully when I told her the vehicle was the latest in SUVs. “It’s a minivan,” she said.
This year, the Mercedes M-class celebrates its 10th anniversary as the first crossover vehicle. A decade ago, the ML320 — created from a “ground up” platform — grabbed headlines for its low frame, designed to be less dangerous than truck-based SUVs in collisions with smaller vehicles. The M-class was also the first SUV with
stability control.
This year’s version, the ML550, is a powerful V-8 model that drives like a sports car. The power is immense, the acceleration lightning fast, and the M-class’ carlike stance gives a road-hugging sense of control. You can choose comfort mode, which softens the bumps on long rides, or sport mode, for a stiffer ride with more control in the driver’s hands.
Unlike the Enclave, the Mercedes crossover has only two rows of seats, which limits the number of kids you can shuttle to soccer practice. But then, at well over $50,000, it’s not exactly the vehicle for most soccer moms. We can dream!
Buick Enclave CXL AW
- ML 550 4Matic
- Price as tested: $67,030
- Transmission: 7-speed automatic
- Engine: 5.5 liter, V8
- Fuel economy: 13 city, 18 hwy
- Seatbelts: 5
- Curb weight: 4985 lbs.
ML 550 4Matic
- Price as tested: $44,055
- Transmission: 6-speed automatic
- Engine: 3.6 liter, V6
- Fuel economy: 16 city, 22 hwy
- Seatbelts: 7
- Curb weight: 4985 lbs.
