Female Owned?

[Touring5]

I bought a used Camry from a dealer's lot (8 year old car with around 90K miles). They had taken it in trade-in on a new car a full year earlier. They priced it to sell and it ran pretty well. I noticed it had a sticker on the engine indicating the timing belt had been replaced, which turned out to be when the car was received in trade. Apparently the original (female) owner neglected the recommended service and broke the belt and her solution was to just trade it in. After purchase, I did a coolant change and discovered chunks of rust in the system - so apparently that system was ignored. Changed the plugs, and yes they were original. The loud ticking from the engine was likely due to rare oil changes. I kept the car for 5 years as a beater and put about 35K on it - only failures were the automatic antenna and an ignition cable.

Buying used makes the most sense economically, but it can be a gamble.

 

[saberz]

I'd be wary. The things I have seen women do to their cars and how they treat them is a flag for me.

11 years ago when I had my Jeep, I had a lady fly up to my passenger side and slam her brakes and ask me for directions at a red light. Her Benz had a smashed front/end and driverside panel. Light turns green and she floors it down the road.

I've heard the "change your oil? Your supposed to change that?" and "I haven't done a thing to the car its so reliable, I just put gas in it and go".

Maybe Grandma's from the 70's and 80's but not the 90's-2k's women. The other thing that really upset me is when I went to sell my tC, a few dealers were trying to say it was a "smoker" vehicle and tried to drop the amount it was worth. He assumed the guy standing next to it was my friend(not, it was another employee ding another dealer trick!).

Car dealers these days find all sorts of ways to drop you.

Oh this is a 2nd owner car, its not going to sell for much. Smoker/Non-smoker vehicle etc.

 

[lairdwd]

Originally Posted By: Touring5
I bought a used Camry from a dealer's lot


That's your problem right there dude. Single owner used vehicles only. Easier to track the maintenence history that way... And I'm not women adverse, although I do want to see the receipts for maintenence/repairs.

 

[rjundi]

My wife is very gentle on cars. She drives only manual and never wore out the clutch.

She changes/checks oil but is not meticulous in maintenance. Who can argue because she manages about 200k out vehicles before she moves on with them.

 

[tonycarguy]

Bad drivers can be male or female, but bad male drivers do things like speeding, weaving through traffic, etc, which are dangerous for others but not that bad for the car as long as they don't cause an accident.

On the other hand, bad female drivers hit the curb when they parallel park, drive fast over speed bumps, make no effort to avoid potholes, turn hard into the curb when entering a driveway, park so close to the concrete parking block that they scratch the front bumper, etc. They do very bad things to their cars. Thus, "female owned" is a red flag.

 

[tonycarguy]

The attitude of most women I know is, "The car serves me not the other way around". I knew a gal who had a tire that leaked 3 psi per day. I told her to fix it or buy a new tire ASAP, and in the meantime she MUST keep adding air to keep it above 28psi. I stressed it was a "MUST DO" because it was dangerous and at the least can damage the $300 rims. I inflated them to 34 and she was on her way.

After a week I met up with her for lunch and noticed the tire was visibly underinflated. I checked the pressure: 14 psi. I ask her why didn't she add air like I said? She said, "well I don't know, I hate maintenance. I was gonna get to it later".

In my mind I was thinking, "When were you gonna get to it? When it disintegrated to shreds?"

 

[Kaboomba]

"Female Owned" in an ad is a huge red flag because the aforementioned female believes that somehow, by virtue of the gender of the driver, the car is in superior condition.

Dare I, a Neanderthalic male hominid, question such beliefs?

Happily, this type of flagrant disregard for rational thought is not universal among females.

 

[wrcsixeight]

I like the story I read on Here when someone asked a woman when the last time she changed her oil:
"Change it to what?"

A former girlfriend of mine would continuously accelerate harder than the car in front of her, then slam on the brakes, then the gas, then the brakes. That poor Ford. The corner of the brake pedal was worn down to the metal at 42 k miles. Of course it was the cars fault.

When on the empty highway, her speed varied from 50 to 85 mph, even when she wasn't distracted or complaining.

Her driving led to the fight which thankfully ended the relationship. While she was a nightmare, I've seen other women very meticulous about having vehicle maintenance performed.

But I would not buy a car that claimed "female owned" just for the attitude and current societal norm which says women are smart and kind and nice and all Men are evil, testosterone laden Neanderthals, overwhelmingly dumb and incompetent, deserved of emasculation.

All you need to do to successfully market a product to a woman these days is show an exasperated woman roll her eyes at a dumb man's antics.

Imagine the heck storm that would if the opposite were ever implied.

 

[fdcg27]

Women are on average no more nor less clueless and abusive to cars then are men.
You cannot gerneralize in looking at a used vehicle.
Female owned is neither an advantage nor a disadvantage.
Also, some cars shrug off neglect really well, while others need careful maintenance.
An old school Mercedes can be brought back from a state of benign neglect, a more recent model, not so much, for example.

 

[bobfather99]

Another thing Ive noticed about women owned cars is the fingernail scratches all over the buttons/radio, gormet coffee spills, kick marks on the driver's door panel, and a high heel mark dug into the carpet.

For some weird reason, every girl Ive ever dated has broken the turn signal lever in her car. How I dont know.

Women are just as hard on cars as men are, trust me.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Female owned, man maintained is a good combo. Our CRV was VERY tidy at 80k when we bought it from a woman. New timing belt, 3k changes and new tires with a clean body. The husband ran sprint cars.

 

[ls1mike]

Any used car is a gamble. Sometimes it is hard to tell what kind of maintenance is done without records. People can tell you whatever they want and they will.

 

[Jim 5]

Conversation I had with a friend for whom I do oil changes.

Me: You need to check your oil every second fill-up, here's a quart of oil to keep in your car in case it needs any. Get your boyfriend to do it.

Carrie: The oil life thing on the dash says I'm at 70%!

Me: That's a prediction of when you need to change your oil. You have to check the oil on this dipstick here on the engine. Just buy gas at a full service place every second tank or get your boyfriend to check it.

Carrie: OK

Two months later...

Me: Your oil is a quart low!

Carrie: My dash says I have 52% oil left, I don't need to add any till it hits zero.

Me: I mentioned before that you have your oil changed when this hits zero, in the mean time you check your oil every second tank on the engine. Get your boyfriend to do it.

Carrie: What kind of oil would I use, and where would I even get it?

Me: It's in your trunk, I gave it to you when I changed your oil a few months ago and explained all of this.

Carrie: So I can't let my oil get too low...

Me: Right.

Carrie: Is it possible to put too much oil in?

Me: Yes.

Carrie: I can't win.

 

[Scott_Tucker]

Beware the 'mechanic owned' used car.

 

[motorguy222]

This is a little off topic but applies in a way.I used to work with a guy that had some time before worked at a garage/shop that also sold gas.

One day a woman pulled in and her car died.She didnt know what was wrong so they checked it for her.They found out the problem and told her.

The car was out of gas.

Here is the big thing,she asked if it would hurt it to run it without the gas.

This is supposed to be a true story and the guy that told it isnt one to make this kind of thing up.

I dont think I would want a car she had owned.

 

[Scott_Tucker]

When I was very young I worked at a tuneup shop that did a lot of lof's. I changed the oil on a ladies car and she paid and picked it up. She came back about 10 minutes later, furious. She said we didn't put any oil in her car. She wouldn't let me touch the car. She popped the hood, removed the oil filler cap, pointed at it and yelled, "See, there's no oil in there, it's supposed to be full!".

 

[L_Sludger]

Sorry, but in every single solitary case that I can think of, a female-owned vehicle is going to have been neglected and beaten to the point of needing to be junked.

 

[daves87rs]

I'd sadly have to agree with most on here. I know quite a few women (including on her side of the family, and I see the same thing: no care for the car.

My wife tends to be tough on cars (though she is getting much better now) I've been behind it making sure that everything is good, and being prepared (synthetic oil, for example) Besides a bit of rust, car looks/runs great for a almost 8 year old car.


but you never know...

 

[Jeff3126]

When it comes to mechanical devices women are useless.* A friend who has a VW beetle covinced a girl in high school that the exhaust actually helped to propel the vehicle forward.

*If you are a woman reading this who is mechanically competent to the degree that you can change your own oil (correctly) by yourself, then you have my sincere apology along with some admiration.

 

[M1Accord]

Most women think putting gas is more than reasonable as far as car upkeep is concern. My wife doesn't even have to put gas in it, that's my job to make sure only Tier 1 gas goes in.