He Shops, She Shops

Though they may hesitate to browse the aisles at a grocery store or spend more than a minimal amount of time buying clothing, a recent study suggests that men are more thorough - albeit more spendthrift - shoppers than women when it comes to buying a car. The auto research site CarGurus.com in Cambridge, Mass., examined differences among the genders with regard to car-shopping behavior and found that male buyers were likely to spend an average of 5.4 days investigating a vehicle versus 4.5 days for female purchasers. On the other hand, the average price for which men submitted purchase inquiries was 13 percent higher at $17,518, versus $15,485 for women. Not surprisingly, male shoppers were more likely to request information on pickup trucks and high-performance and premium branded cars, and models having manual transmissions. Women, on the other hand, more frequently inquired about minivans, crossover SUVs and hatchbacks and cars equipped with automatic transmissions.