I am a 50 year old male Miata owner. Last night, while at a social gathering, the topic of cars came up. I mentioned that I was an owner of a new Miata. This women who I had just met, burst out with "that's a girls car"! I was a bit taken aback by that comment having never thought about it one way or the other. The best comeback I could muster was "Well maybe with the automatic transmission". Her comment ate at me all night, hence this post. What are the demographics of Miata ownership? Does anyone have anything to share on this topic?
All over the place. "Man's car" and "girl's car" are artifacts of sexual insecurity. Why worry what insecure people think?
Yes, women love them--my car draws females like moths to a flame. Teenaged girls hang out of the windows of their boygriends' Camaros to yell "NICE CAR!" on the highway. Funny, I never saw that as a downside. My wife thinks it's amusing.
Never underestimate the power of the Miata's standard-equipment BabeMagnet(tm).
HA HA HA :-D Great picture! The subject of girl/boy man/woman car has been discussed many times over the years. For the record I am a 57 year old female. I"ve had my Miata since July of 1989. So, I am an old geezerette.
I see mostly males between 30 and 50 driving most of them around these parts. Rarely a young female/male. I've seen a few older ladies and a few older men. That's about it.
~Cissy My '90 Mazda Miata I love PC adventure games
That's a classic. That picture is going up on my office wall tomorrow. I'm a 58 year old geezer (like Cissy's a geezerette) and I've been the only owner of this car since it was new in '92. I too get the compliments from the little ladies. (Are 12 year old girls "little ladies"?)
Jim - My daughter is 12 years old so be careful. LOL. I had a good laugh last night when I went to drop her off at a slumber party. We took the Miata and when we got to her friend's house several of the 12-13 year old "little ladies" were checking out the car. My daughter thinks she is going to inherit the Miata when she turns 16 but she has another think coming.
I just bought a very nice 10AE that was sold because the new 16 year old driver would cost the parents an additional $5000/year in insurance premiums. I have yet to see a "girl" driving a Miata. I have seen a few women driving Miatas, and Corvettes, and Vipers.
As a 40 year old female who fell in love with the '68 Alfa Spider when I was
11 years old, the Miata is just about my dream car. My favorite reaction? I was driving with the lid down through a crowded parking lot: a man and his son walk past me and I hear the 12 year old boy say "Wow Dad what a NEAT car!"...I couldn't agree with him more.
My husband complained when I got my first Miata that it was just too too small. For 14 years he would never let me drive us anywhere in my staid sedans. Now it's always him saying "Honey would you drive us tonight? Let's take your car. Yeah - put the top down!"
I would think that is more a reflection of who joins car clubs rather than who drives Miatae.
On the UK forum there has been a lot of talk about women who would like to go along to meetings but are put off by the idea of "talking cars" with a bunch of petrol-heads! Needless to say we have been trying to make them see that it isn't like that...
There are only a handful of cars on the planet that have no specific demographics. The Miata and the Jeep Wrangler seem to be the two that really stand out. You are as likely to be rich or poor, male or female, blue-collar, college, white-collar, or retired, as not. There really isn't much of a way to say 'That person drives one and that person doesn't.' Doing so usually gets you laughed at when someone else gets in and leaves. (Going by the hair with the tops down is cheating.. hehe).
Oddly enough, I own both of the above and wouldn't have it any other way. Though with my current Miata sitting at 11 years old (and about how long I've had it) I've been pondering adding another car to the stable. Would I replace the Miata? No.. Every time I think about it I take a nice fast run through Deal's Gap, the Cherohala Skyway, or any number of the other wonderful windy roads like the Cherokee National Forest... and then it hits me that frankly there isn't much out there that can touch it in terms of handling and such. This 'girls car' must have the longest nails for digging into pavement that I've run across in a long time... but I hope he won't get too jealous when I park that STi next to it in a few months....
Obviously everyone will jump in on this one as it has come up many times before. I've heard the same comment but can tell you that most of my students (18-25) think it is so cool that an old geezer like myself (all of 55) drives such a "phat car". I wouldn't care if I was the only male owner in the universe, it is a great car, a blast to drive, conjures up visions of my old Triump Spitfire without the associated issues, is economical to operate and dirt cheap to insure. The other comment that often comes up is that it is a "gay" car. Again, who cares (hey, doubles your chances for a date - LOL). My wife loves it but isn't particularly found of driving it but sure looks good in the passenger seat and yes, even us old farts still get comments from the young ladies about nice car.
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