SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

TrueCar.com’s newest study examined gender differences in vehicle buying based on more than nine million retail purchases in 2011.

As dealers might have suspected, analysts discovered men prefer flashy or brawny vehicles while women prefer import brands and smaller vehicles.

“While gender preferences amongst the buyers of various automotive brands still exists, the gap is narrowing,” explained Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence at TrueCar.com.

“The SUV and truck heavy mix of the domestic automakers continue to generate a disproportionate number of male customers, while the exotic brands remain to be the best medicine for a midlife crisis,” Toprak continued.

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

—The brand with the highest percentage of retail sales to females in 2011 continues to be Mini (46.2 percent), followed by Nissan (45.7 percent) and Kia (45.6 percent), compared to 2010 when Mini (47.9 percent) came in first, followed by Kia and Honda respectively (46.8 percent and 46.0 percent). There were 14 brands with a female ratio of more than 40 percent in 2011, and newcomer Fiat landed at 41.9 percent.

 —Males continue to be the majority of exotic new-vehicle buyers, but in 2011, there was only one exotic brand with 10 percent or less retail sales to women, Ferrari (7.5 percent), compared to 2010 when there were six brands. 

—Sixteen of the top 20 brands in 2011 with the highest percentage of female buyers were import brands, while domestic brand Fiat (per its relationship with Chrysler Group) landed at No. 12. Chrysler, Buick and Jeep rounded out the list in spots 18 through 20. Only three luxury brands made the top 20, with Lexus (44.2 percent) being the only luxury brand above 40 percent. 

—Thirteen of the top 20 brands in 2011 with the highest percentage of male buyers were either exotic or luxury brands. When including luxury brands, nine of the top 20 were domestic. GMC and Dodge brands both had more than 70 new-car male buyers in 2011. 

—The new Volkswagen Beetle, introduced last year, had a higher percentage of male buyers in 2011, with 45.4 percent of buyers being male. In 2010, the Volkswagen New Beetle had only 39.4 percent of male buyers.

“Female car buyers really gravitated toward smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and crossovers,” stated TrueCar.com senior analyst Kristen Andersson.

“It was the complete opposite for male buyers, who preferred either a fast and sporty vehicle with distinctive curb appeal or a big vehicle, like a large truck or SUV,” Andersson added.

Below are the top 10 brands with the highest male and female purchase ratios:

Male

—Ferrari: 92.5 percent
—Bentley: 83.4 percent
—Maserati: 82.8 percent
—Porsche: 76.5 percent
—Jaguar: 73.9 percent
—GMC: 73.5 percent
—Dodge: 72.0 percent
—Land Rover: 71.2 percent
—Ford: 68.6 percent|
—Chevrolet 67.8 percent

Female

—Mini: 46.2 percent
—Nissan: 45.7 percent
—Kia: 45.6 percent
—Honda: 45.5 percent
—Mitsubishi: 44.9 percent
—Mazda: 44.3 percent
—Lexus: 44.2 percent
—Suzuki: 44.0 percent
—Subaru: 43.9 percent
—Hyundai: 43.7 percent

Below are the top 10 models that had the highest percentage of male and female buyers (minimum 1,000 retail sales):

Male

—Porsche 911: 88.2 percent
—GMC Sierra: 87.5 percent
—Ford F-Series: 87.0 percent
—Chevrolet Corvette: 86.9 percent
—Chevrolet Silverado: 86.4 percent
—BMW M3: 85.1 percent
—Audi S4: 84.7 percent
—Audi A8: 84.4 percent
—Cadillac Escalade EXT: 84.3 percent
—Maserati Granturismo: 84.3 percent

Female

—Volvo S40: 57.9 percent
—Nissan Rogue: 56.9 percent
—Volkswagen Eos: 56.4 percent
—Volkswagen Beetle: 54.6 percent
—Hyundai Tucson: 54.0 percent
—Honda CR-V: 53.4 percent
—Toyota RAV4: 53.0 percent
—Nissan Juke: 52.7 percent
—Jeep Compass: 52.7 percent
—Nissan Versa: 52.2 percent

TrueCar’s Newest Performance Scorecards

In other TrueCar.com news, analysts released their newest Performance Scorecards for manufacturers and brands. They reiterated the Performance Scorecards grade each manufacturer and brand on eight different measurements including pricing, sales, incentives, customer loyalty, market share and days in inventory.

Overall, the top manufacturers on the Scorecards in March were Hyundai, BMW and Ford. Near the bottom of the list were Mazda, Jaguar and Smart.

The brands that received the highest grades were Hyundai, Scion, Kia and BMW. The brands with the lowest grades were Mazda, Jaguar and Smart.

TrueCar pointed out the manufacturers with the largest gains from February to March were:

—Mitsubishi moved from a C to a B
—Ford moved from an A- to an A+
—Jaguar Land Rover moved from a B to a B+
—Subaru moved from a B- to a B
—Toyota moved from a B- to a B+
—Daimler moved from a C+ to a B

The site added the manufacturers with the steepest declines from February to March were:

—General Motors moved from an A to a C+
—Honda moved from a B+ to a C
—BMW moved from an A to a B-
—Suzuki moved from a B- to a C-