Women more likely to give their car a nickname

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Do you name your car? Chances are, if you are a woman or younger than 25, the answer is yes.

Not only that, the car is likely to be "female" and have a name that starts with the letter "B," according to DMEautomotive, a Daytona Beach, Fla.-based marketing company, which surveyed 2,000 Americans recently to determine the depth of their emotional attachment to their vehicles.

"The accepted cliché is that men have a more passionate, personal relationship with their beloved cars, while women view them as utilitarian machines that get you from Point A to B," said Doug Van Sach, of DMEautomotive, in a press release. "But this research provides a different insight: women are significantly more likely to christen their vehicles, and also associate a female gender with them, while more men perceive their vehicles as male."

Among the findings:

• One in five drivers have named their car. Women (23 per cent) are more likely to do so than men (18 per cent).
• One in four of those names begins with a “B”. The top five: Baby; Betsy; Bessie; Black Beauty; and Betty.
• Forty-nine per cent of drivers assign a gender to their vehicle. Of these, 88 per cent of women view their ride as “female” – compared with 55 per cent of men who do so as well. Over all, there are twice as many “female” cars (32 per cent) on the road as “male” (16 per cent).
• Drivers ages 18-24 are more likely (40 per cent) to name their car. This percentage drops the older a driver is, down to 11 per cent of drivers aged 65 or older who name their car.

AWARDS: Infiniti won two technical awards presented last week at the Montreal International Auto Show. The Automobile Journalists Association of Canada gave the premium auto maker its innovative technology award for its Direct Adaptive Steering technology and named it the safety technology winner for its Predictive Forward Collision Warning system.

MORE AWARDS: The Ford Mustang and Volvo Concept XC Coupe won the annual Eyes on Design awards presented last week at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The 2015 Mustang was named best production vehicle while the Volvo was a double winner, taking home the title as best concept vehicle and the award for innovative use of colour, graphics, and materials.

AND ONE LAST AWARD: The 2014 Mazda3 captured the fifth annual Best of the Best award handed out by the Canadian Automotive Jury. It beat out the Chevrolet Corvette Stingray and the Jaguar F-Type.

CLUTCH DECISION: A trio of thieves in Springfield, Mass., jumped a food delivery driver last week, pulling a knife and demanding the cuisine and the keys to his car. Easy peasy, right? Free grub and a car to go. Wrong. Turns out the car had a manual transmission – and none of the three stooges knew how to drive stick. The bad boys argued among themselves, The Associated Press reports, and then fled on foot with the food. Yet another reason why manual is better than automatic …

If you have questions about driving or car maintenance, please contact our experts at globedrive@globeandmail.com.

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