Mk1 MX5 a girls car? Maybe....but what IS a girls car?!
Discussion
No doubt a subject that’s been done to death over the years but it re-emerged this week when I announced to my wife that I will be buying a mk1 Mazda MX5, a car she immediately denounced as a ‘girls car’ – a view shared by many I’m sure! Now I have no issue at all with people holding this opinion although I must say I disagree; I do agree that the MX5 is a good sports car FOR girls (and I mean this in no way patronisingly) in that it’s attractive, fun to drive, and easy to look after. However, to my mind and that of many other car enthusiasts the MX5 (particularly the mk1) isn’t a girls car but rather an outstanding drivers car with a rev-happy twin-cam, agile chassis and ample opportunity for ‘enhancements’ that can’t be bettered for the money; to my knowledge more mk1 buyers are now male than female; does that make it a mans car? Probably not, but perhaps a drivers car….
Anyway, I posed the question at work (a female dominated office) and the unanimous response was that it WAS indeed a girl’s car but when I asked WHY it was a girls car responses became more uncertain. One colleague said it was because it was a small, attractive convertible but then conceded that the Elise matches that description and is a ‘mans’ car so she added that it’s because the MX5 is curvy rather than angular so is body-shape the answer? Are the original Elan and Alfa Spider therefore girl’s cars?
My view is that a ‘girls car’ if there is such a thing is a car which adheres to pretty/feminine form over function i.e. Vauxhall Tigra, Suzuki Cappuccino, Ford Street Ka, and dare I say it Audi TT (185) convertible etc whereas the MX5, MGF, Barchetta etc are all fine drivers cars and engineered with the driver firmly in mind. I’m sure however that this argument could also be picked to pieces!
So what is a girls car; can it be defined objectively or is purely a matter of wholly subjective opinion?!
Answers on a postcard!
Anyway, I posed the question at work (a female dominated office) and the unanimous response was that it WAS indeed a girl’s car but when I asked WHY it was a girls car responses became more uncertain. One colleague said it was because it was a small, attractive convertible but then conceded that the Elise matches that description and is a ‘mans’ car so she added that it’s because the MX5 is curvy rather than angular so is body-shape the answer? Are the original Elan and Alfa Spider therefore girl’s cars?
My view is that a ‘girls car’ if there is such a thing is a car which adheres to pretty/feminine form over function i.e. Vauxhall Tigra, Suzuki Cappuccino, Ford Street Ka, and dare I say it Audi TT (185) convertible etc whereas the MX5, MGF, Barchetta etc are all fine drivers cars and engineered with the driver firmly in mind. I’m sure however that this argument could also be picked to pieces!
So what is a girls car; can it be defined objectively or is purely a matter of wholly subjective opinion?!
Answers on a postcard!
) 
I'm an MGF owner so probably a bit biased, but I find a lot of the supposed girls/hairdressers cars to be a cracking drive.
I suppose anything that can be considered pretty or cute is probably up for being called a birds car. Oddly enough those kind of comments I've had about my little ghey roadster have been from middle aged fat lads...
I suppose anything that can be considered pretty or cute is probably up for being called a birds car. Oddly enough those kind of comments I've had about my little ghey roadster have been from middle aged fat lads...
Purely a matter of subjective opinion, which is heavily influenced by a social discourse that small 2 seater roadsters are girls cars!
Unless its a classic, in which case it is not. Apparently.
I don't think there is an awful lot of rational thought or logic involved. Its why when really pressed on the issue they couldn't really answer.
(I am a man and have an MR2 Roadster incidently)
Unless its a classic, in which case it is not. Apparently.
I don't think there is an awful lot of rational thought or logic involved. Its why when really pressed on the issue they couldn't really answer.
(I am a man and have an MR2 Roadster incidently)
2 seater sports cars used to be mens cars, when men wore hats, smoked pipes and looked good in tweed. The arrival of the hot hatch saw the sorts car all but die. When it re-emerged with the MX-5 men had moved onto sharp suits, big mobile phones and Golf GTI's. Girls were the main customers of new MX5's (and MGFs). This is why they have become a girls a car. No fault of the car itself.
Nick
Nick
Funnily enough I had a conversation about good handling cars a while back and although I haven't driven one I mentioned the MX5 and somebody said they are s
t girly cars.
I then asked him to explain and he said 'they just are'.
Can anybody actually explain 'why' they think the mx5 is a girly car as looking at the OP's comments I can only see positives.
t girly cars. I then asked him to explain and he said 'they just are'.
Can anybody actually explain 'why' they think the mx5 is a girly car as looking at the OP's comments I can only see positives.
Dave Hedgehog said:
girly cars are to me anything that looks effeminate:
mx5
z4 convertible
elise
TT
new mini
fiat 500
baby merc convertible
that kind of thing
Cheers Dave and thanks for all the comments so far.mx5
z4 convertible
elise
TT
new mini
fiat 500
baby merc convertible
that kind of thing
Dave, not disputing your list as such but the point of the thread is to determine not WHAT cars people think are girly, but WHY they're considered girly. Is it subjective opinoin or are there objective criteria?
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