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CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — According to a recent study from shopping
site CarGurus, men may be willing to spend a bit more on the lots than female customers.

The study released this week suggests that "when it comes to
buying a car, men tend to shop longer and spend more than women."

The study examined gender differences in car-shopping
behavior, and the results showed that the average price of the cars for which
male shoppers submitted purchase inquiries was 13 percent higher than for
female shoppers ($17,518 on average for male shoppers versus. $15,485 for
female shoppers), CarGurus shared.

Moreover, on top of being willing to drop a few more dollars,
it seems men may prolong the research process a bit more than women, as well.

"Male shoppers also spent on average more time shopping at
the site than female shoppers (5.4 average days for male shoppers compared to
4.5 days for female shoppers)," officials noted.

The site also highlighted a few more discrepancies it found
between male and female shoppers.

First up, per the study's results, male car shoppers were
twice as likely to inquire about cars with manual transmissions than female
shoppers.

As for body styles, men were more likely to inquire about
pickup trucks, vans and coupes, while women were more likely than men to
inquire about minivans, hatchbacks and crossovers, officials continued.

As for models, men were more often in the market for
high-performance, premium brand cars than women.

"Models that skewed most heavily to male shoppers included
the Ford Shelby GT500, BMW M3, Cadillac CTS-V, Audi S4 and Porsche 911. For
female shoppers models including the Volkswagen Beetle, Jeep Compass, Mazda
CX-7, Nissan Rogue and Nissan Cube ranked highest among the models that skewed
heavily to female shoppers," site officials explained. |

On the other hand, when it came to fuel economy – a factor
on many shoppers' minds as gas prices begin to soar once again – male and
female shoppers were more closely aligned; the average miles per gallon on cars
that female shoppers inquired about was 20.9, while for men it was 19.7.

Highlighted the methodology behind the study, CarGurus
analysts reviewed more than 671,000 consumer inquiries submitted to dealers on
specific car listings at www.cargurus.com, comparing those submitted by men
to those submitted by women, officials explained.

"Average price was calculated based on the list prices for
the cars about which shoppers inquired. Average time spent shopping for a car
was determined by calculating the number of elapsed days between each
consumer's first shopping and last shopping inquirie," site officials
noted.

"The models that skewed to one gender vs. another were
determined by analyzing which models had the greatest percentage of total
inquiries from males versus female shoppers," they concluded.