Testosterone Check: Would You Be Caught Dead Driving a CHICK Car?

TrueCar.com, the authoritative voice in new car price and industry trend information, has released its second in a series of automotive industry demographic studies, this time turning its data lens on gender differences in auto registrations.

TrueCar's study was based on over 13 million actual vehicle registrations, covering the last two years. Additionally, TrueCar.com was able to identify current discount percentages for each of these makes and models.

In looking at the gender of the name on the registration alone, and not driver or decision maker, the data shows that more men than women - at a rate of 64% to 36% - register vehicles in the U.S., even though females make up 51% of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

"We were surprised to see that there is still a sizable gender gap when it comes to vehicle registrations," said Jesse Toprak, Vice President of Industry Trends and Insights. "Of the more than 200 models we examined, only nine were registered by more woman than men and none of the brands had a registration rate that was higher for women."

  Some of the key findings of the TrueCar.com study include:

  --  The brand with the highest percentage of female registrations was Kia
      (45.8%), followed by Suzuki (44.2%) and Mini (43.9%).  There were 10
      total makes with female ratio of over 42%, including Subaru, Hyundai
      and Volvo, which are all brands known for safety and/or value.
  --  The highest percentage of male registrations included primarily
      exotics and truck heavy brands.  There were six brands at 10% or less
      for female registration, including Bugatti (0%), Ferrari (5.6%),
      Lamborghini (6.5%), Tesla (9.8%), Aston Martin (9.9%) and Lotus (10%).
      Representing the low end of female registered brands were several
      makes best known for trucks, including GMC, Dodge and Hummer.
  --  Models that had a better than 50% female registration rate were:
      Volkswagen New Beetle, Nissan Rogue, Hyundai Tucson, Volkswagen EOS,
      Volvo S40 Sedan, Honda CR-V, Kia Sportage, Toyota Rav4 and Nissan
      Sentra.

TrueCar also examined the most current market prices and listed discounts for all of the brands and specific models that were tracked. Below are the Top 10 brands with highest female registration ratios and their current discount percentages:

                     % of Female
      Make          Registration   % Discount off MSRP
      ----          ------------   -------------------
  KIA                        45.8%                 8.3%
  ---                        ----                  ---
  SUZUKI                     44.2%                 9.5%
  ------                     ----                  ---
  MINI                       43.9%                 3.1%
  ----                       ----                  ---
  SUBARU                     43.2%                 4.0%
  ------                     ----                  ---
  NISSAN                     43.1%                 9.6%
  ------                     ----                  ---
  HYUNDAI                    43.0%                 8.3%
  -------                    ----                  ---
  HONDA                      42.8%                 7.8%
  -----                      ----                  ---
  VOLVO                      42.4%                 8.2%
  -----                      ----                  ---
  LEXUS                      42.3%                 7.2%
  -----                      ----                  ---
  MITSUBISHI                 41.5%                10.1%
  ----------                 ----                 ----

Below are the nine models that had topped the 50% or more female registration ratio and their current market discounts:

                                  % of Female
       Make          Model       Registration   % Discount off MSRP
       ----          -----       ------------   -------------------
  VOLKSWAGEN     NEW BEETLE               56.1%                  3.0%
  ----------     ----------               ----                   ---
  NISSAN         ROGUE                    53.5%                 13.9%
  ------         -----                    ----                  ----
  HYUNDAI        TUCSON                   53.0%                  2.4%
  -------        ------                   ----                   ---
  VOLKSWAGEN     EOS                      53.0%                  5.1%
  ----------     ---                      ----                   ---
  VOLVO          S40                      51.9%                 11.3%
  -----          ---                      ----                  ----
  HONDA          CR-V                     51.3%                  4.4%
  -----          ----                     ----                   ---
  KIA            SPORTAGE                 50.5%                  9.0%
  ---            --------                 ----                   ---
  TOYOTA         RAV4                     50.4%                  4.2%
  ------         ----                     ----                   ---
  NISSAN         SENTRA                   50.1%                 16.2%
  ------         ------                   ----                  ----

The full tables are available at the TrueCar Truth Blog or by contacting the TrueCar Media team.