Real Women Love Cars

Real Women Love Cars

It's a bit of a joke that women couldn't care less about cars. Or if they do, it's only the colour that means anything to us.

Well, a few weeks ago I got to hang out with some uber cool ladies (and some very serious motoring journos) to check out Hyundai's luxury mid-range i45 and their new kid on the block, the urbanite i20. Over a scrummy dinner, in between talk of shoes and weddings, work and holidays, we actually chatted about cars. I was surprised by how much we cared about cars, knew what we were talking about. The colour or what we nickname our cars didn't even come up. By the way, mine's Goldie.

The next day we paired up and took a test drive of both cars through Sydney's northern beaches and had an absolute ball. The i20 and i45 were fully loaded with bottles of water and iPods (there's full connectivity) plus the i20 has a cooling glove box (keeps your drinks cold for long drives, yippee!). It was one of those gorgeous blue sky days and the sunroof in the i45 worked a treat. If only our own cars could be so sleek (and devoid of burger wrappers, or is that just me?).

After a gorgeous lunch (and a chance to meet Masterchef's Marion and have a photo taken with her - you can imagine how excited I was!) we were able to put our foot down with a final drive through Ku-ring-gai National Park and it just had us dreaming of summer road trips. Like the one I took a few years ago to Byron Bay with a snorting pitbull who kept trying to dryhump my cat for the 13 hour drive! We all planned to take a road trip soon with friends or our better halves, madly scribbling down iPod track suggestions to make it more a drive to remember, and less Thelma and Louise.

Action shot

That night I met up with friends for a birthday and everyone wanted to hear about the test drive. While I focused on the great gals I'd met and the gorgeous food, my friends only wanted to hear about the cars. "What's the i45 like, is it as sexy as they look on TV?" and "I need to buy a new car soon, do you recommend the i20?" I couldn't believe it. It was a bit too daytime informercial for me but I'm thrilled that us women aren't just cliches and take an interest in something so huge as what they drive. And it's ok if you only care about the colour, because hey, that's important too.