A car designed for women?

Question

* There is no hood! "Honestly, the only time I open the bonnet (hood) on my car is when I want to fill up washer fluid," explained Tatiana Butovitsch, the project team's communications manager, "So we shifted the filling station for washer fluid to the side of the car, next to where you fill up fuel, and we closed the bonnet for good."

* The car comes with special parallel parking assist electronics and bumpers all around, features some felt would be demeaning to women! One design team member noted that the wraparound bumpers allowed for "creative" female driving.

* Headrests have room for ponytails.

* An adjustable footrest allows for different heel heights.

* There is no gas cap -- a flap allows for insertion of the gas nozzle.

* There's no tachometer - it's for drivers who don't care about engine revs.

* The engine is a low-emission, gasoline-electric hybrid.

* It's low maintenance. It only needs an oil change every 50,000 km and when it does, the car

Answer 1

Can I get it in a color to match my lipstick?

Answer 2

Don't call me when it's broke, I won't give a d**n.

Edit: 50k oil changes doesn't mean you can stop checking it either.

Answer 3

I know a few people who would probably like to have that car.

And, id2ga, your description of a car for men actually sounds pretty cool. I wouldn't need the special compartment for p**n, but the automatically emptying trash can sounds great! The curb warning system would also be useful so that I can park as close as possible to the curb (saving space in the road!) without scratching the rims I painted myself.

Answer 4

The only good thing about that is it's low emission.

Answer 5

I would love to have a low maintanance car that schedules the appointments for me when it needs to go in and it uses less fuel than non-flex fuel cars.  Add a tachometer and I'll buy one.

Answer 6

oh come on - im not afraid of a wittle eitty bitty car lol.  sheesh.  I dont need this woman car.

Answer 7

i dont think its right to group it any more by a gender than it would be to group by a sexual preference. could you imagine how idiotic it would sound if someone said hey look its a car designed for g*y guys... well thats about how stupid this sounds already by saying that these features make it for women. people are individuals!

so yeah theres a big marketing flop, the premise is insulting and idiotic... but the idea behind putting new and different features into a car??? gotta say i dont hate it... i would actually buy this car. i really like the features to it, and wish that more designers would offer a wider range of individual options depending on what is going to be important for the driver. we already customize laptops this way... why not cars?i mean each feature put into a car takes some thought from someone... why are they all the same when we as people arent?

no joke, it  sounds like what i was going for when i built my little pickup. sure some of the features i wouldnt have thought of, but they seem cool.

I wound up building my entire truck from the frame up so it would have the features that i needed. and i absolutely despise getting greasy or grimy or busting my knuckles working on anything mechanical... but since i wanted personalized... i had to make my own.

ex. i am a slow driver most of the time, but have a tendancy to let my speed escape my attention... so i purposely got a stick shift that wont go over 85mph.  so i have to know my approximate speed by what gear i'm in.

ex 2. because i drive the speed limit people are always on my ***... so i have a solid steel 250 lb bumper that i welded straight onto to frame. just in case they rear end me... i wont likley suffer much body damage.

and finally ex 3. I'm broke, so i swapped fuel filters and carboraters in order to get 45mpg...

the steering wheel fits my hands, the seat is adjustable in 8 ways, my toolbox holds all my camping gear and i have huge mirrors that leave no blind spots.

if i can get hold of some of the info i may just have to work my truck into that 50,000 km oil change bit.

basically my point is that no matter how they screwed up by the general statement that the car was intended for women... variety and innovation are never a bad thing.

Answer 8

Ha! Well, time will tell, but to me it sounds a bit of a pain. I don't want a car that automatically books me in for a service, lol.

I want to run around saving up the dough to get to the mechanic just like I do now.

Those folding seats do sound useful, though. And the hybrid fuel is a real winner, imo.

Maybe like other 'concept' designs we'll see some of this stuff as standard in a few years, and the rest will simply wither away ...

Cheers :-)

Answer 9

LOL... reading this makes my night better.  Wraparound bumpers are you serious?  Seriously... its not that tough to change your own oil...

Answer 10

Lol, sounds more like a car designed for technical wusses.  And there was me thinking they might actually have designed a car that wouldn't kill me if the airbag went off - but no, why worry about that when you can simply add bumpers and seal the bonnet!!!  Typical :-)

Answer 11

Well, if they are going to design an insulting car for women, they should design one for men.

* How about a car that warns of the curbs? (My husband often hits them cuz he doesn't care and calls them curb-checks)

* A huge open bin for trash that automatically empties itself upon parking and takes itself to the trashcan...

*A special place for holding his stash of p**n,

*an air freshener for all his farts,

*a sensor that automatically senses the high gas level when he farts which opens the windows so the air flow quickly freshens the cab

*a place to hold the "to pick up on the way home" list his wife gave him

* a calendar so he remembers his wife's birthday, anniversary, holidays, and their date for the weekend

*A cue card to remind him of the best apologies for his wife when he screws up

*A box of kleenex/or a special place for him to put his boogers he picks as he is at a stop light

*toolbox

*Spare rags for all that fluid checking of the car...

* A built in bumper sticker that apologizes in advance for his rude driving...

*A GPS (so he doesn't have to ask for directions)

Hmmmmm.....

How stupid do you have to be to have a car "designed for women"? Are there really women that dumb?

Answer 12

Haven't women been driving the same cars as men for a long time?  What's "creative female driving" anyway?

It better not be a manual transmission if it doesn't have a tachometer.  You're going to need to know those engine revs then.  I've never seen an automatic have that on there though.

Why can't they make all cars low-maintenance like that though?

Except for the low-maintenace part, the whole thing sounds like women have some kind of driving handicap.

Is it pink, or at least some really girly color like sky blue?

I just saw a link to a BBC aritcle on the page you linked to, and some of the storage features aren't a bad idea either.  It's not pink either, at least that one wasn't.

You know this article is 4 years old?  Also, the BBC article I mentioned says it'll never actually be sold, Volvo wants some of the ideas to be incorporated into new cars.  Apparently everything about cars is made for men.  I didn't know that.

Answer 13

I'm fine with my gender-neutral car, thank you.

Answer 14

No hood? how do you fix anything?  or is it a scam so you HAVE to take it in to the dealership?

s***w them, I got my pick up.

Answer 15

why don't they concentrate on 'cars for men' > cars that won't allow you to start the engine until you've passed a breathalyzer test and won't go above say 50 mph so they don't put everyone at risk by speeding. would make the roads a lot safer