Your fuel efficiency is so hot

Women prefer men who drive environmentally friendly cars.

Published June 5, 2008 5:04PM (EDT)

Put away your books, kids, it's time for a pop quiz. When you picture the kind of car a high school boy might call a "real pussy wagon," what do you see?

A. A vintage Mustang convertible
B. A giant, hulking SUV
C. A tricked-out van with tinted windows and shag carpeting
D. A sensible, hybrid sedan that gets upward of 40 miles per gallon

Well, regardless of what your little brother thinks, ladies love that hot, hot gas mileage. A new study conducted by General Motors has found that 88 percent of women would rather meet a guy with a fuel-efficient vehicle than a dude with a sports car.

Besides being great news for Larry David, the report confirms something women have known all along -- namely, that men care a whole hell of a lot more about expensive, gas-guzzling cars that accelerate from zero to 60 in half a nanosecond than their potential mates ever could. (Reminds you a little bit of the whole "Does size matter debate," doesn't it?) I know I'm not the only girl out there who sees a guy in a Hummer and wonders what he's compensating for. Conventional wisdom holds that you can tell a lot about a man by the way he treats his mother, so why should Mother Earth be any exception?

Of course, the study does have a bit of a gross underlying assumption -- that antiquated notion that men attract women with possessions while we snag guys through physical attractiveness. It's nice to see our environmental consciousness evolving, but I'd prefer my green lifestyle without a side of retrograde sexual politics, thanks.


By Judy Berman

Judy Berman is a writer and editor in Brooklyn. She is a regular contributor to Salon's Broadsheet.

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