The real chick cars was a special model called the La Femme offered by Dodge for its 1955 and 1956 model years. These models came in a special exterior two tone color combination and special interior fabrics designed to appeal to women. These cars came with umbrellas, gloves, raincoats and rainhats which were stored in a compartment behind the front seat that matched the interior. The 1955 Dodge La Femme also came with a purse that matched the interior. Fortunately these LaFemme models came with a V8 engine instead of the flathead 6. At least Dodge thought it more pleasing to women to equip the cars with a powerful engine as opposed to a bud vase to please the women,
Triedaq has a very good memory. For the forum members who are younger than he and I, here is an article about the Dodge LaFemme:
What is interesting today is that Jeep Wranglers and pickup trucks appeal to women. That wasn’t true in the 1950s.
In the 50s women were often referred to as the “weaker sex” (gender).
Last week my wife and I went to watch my 23 year-old grad student daughter compete in another Triathlon.
To make a long story short, today’s women are ANYTHING BUT WEAK, physically, mentally, whatever.
While at one time men did men’s things and women did women’s things, today they enjoy the same things, including vehicles.
Some of the athletic men at the triathlon momentarily got in my daughter’s way as she flew by. Her choice of vehicle is her 2017 Mazda CX-5 AWD.
CSA
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When I was at the dealership, one of my colleagues had a New Beetle . . . complete with the bud vase. He was a family man, wife and kids. He claimed it was his car, not the wife’s. In any case, he drove it every day.
Yup
My former neighbors were 2 women. First, they had one of the newer Mini Coopers. Then they traded it in for a 4 door Wrangler.
One of the women in our fleet drives a lifted 4x4 F-150. 2005 model year, I’d say,
Wranglers and pickups are a lot different than the 1950s versions. Still, a farm girl of the 1950s probably drove the pickup and the family tractor, too. Everybody chipped in when required to make the farm work.
See, that’s the problem. “Spin,” yes. “Playful,” … Ehh.
It’s a Polo with a different body. The engine is in front of you. It doesn’t have that cool air-cooled sound. It drives like any other car in its class. You can’t grin and use the word “frunk” when telling the grocery clerk where to put the bags. And today’s New Beetle is even less playful than it used to be - at least the older ones came with a mildly amusing flower vase.
The sad part is that VW will probably conclude that we don’t want fun cars. Well, yeah, we do actually. But we want our fun cars to actually be… You know… Fun.
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The Vase was a bit too much for me, I also recall seeing some plastic flower on the interior. Not that I wouldn’t drive the car, heck if they give one to me for free, I will drive it.
Now to the old beetle, even though it was unreliable, at least you can take the whole engine out in your driveway in one afternoon, open it up, then put it back together and then throw it right back in. No lift or helper needed. And, also, in that era, all cars were unreliable, at least based on today’s standards.
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I heard that many times when I was a teenager. When I removed the engine from my fiberglass dune buggy I used a jack, when I tried to lift the engine to the work bench I realized that much of what I heard was just “talk”, this engine is not so easy to handle. After I removed the flywheel I was able to lift the engine but I would not recommend doing so.
It is still better than today’s engines that seem to have a whole factory wrapped around them.
I changed the serpentine belt on my wife’s 2.4 Sonata this Friday. It took 25 minutes, But there were a lot of things in the way, the worst of them the AC line. I was really thankful to the new addition to my garage, the $10 MechaniX gloves. The previous me would have had a lot of busted knuckles but now I only have a few burn scars on my elbow, and that thanks to my wife who can not leave the car with me for more than an hour (also did spark plugs, air filter, cabin air filter). This was the 80 K miles present.
I can only thank VW for importing such crappy cars into the US. If it wasn’t for the original bugs, buses, etc. our import auto parts business would not have been as successful as it was.
Head gaskets were mentioned as a chronic problem with the old VW air cooled engines.
Not. The old air cools did not even have a head gasket. At all.
OK4450, You are correct! My goof. Good catch.
My aging brain caused me to make an incorrect state. I knew better, having worked in Volkswagen dealers for years.
I should have said “loose heads” and not leaking head gaskets. Many VWs leaked at the cylinder heads because they were never checked for proper torque or the studs would pull out of the engine case.
Thanks,
CSA
You’re correct about cylinder studs pulling out of the case. Overtorquing was usually caused by someone who could simply not believe that the torque was under 20 Ft. Lbs so they wrenched them down some more. The book can’t possibly be right… 
What often happened is that with looseness the vibrations of the engine would cause the steel cylinder jugs to wallow against the magnesium cylinder heads. This would cause a poor fit and cylinder leakage.
When rebuilding a VW engine (even with all brand new jugs and heads) it is very critical to make sure the jug height is dead on. We always used valve lapping compound to seat the jugs against the cylinder heads.
Rutted cylinder heads could usually be repaired with a special fly cutter which would cut new surfaces on the cylinder heads.
@Triedaq You make me laugh. I think you should have held out for a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll.
My DIL had a new Beetle for a couple years and I have to say it was nothing like my old 59 Bug. It was like a rocket in comparison. A pastor’s wife in town also had one. They had a Peter, Paul, and Mary type group in my college, before they moved here so maybe you get the picture. It’s not the car, it’s the symbol of the car. You don’t need any bumper stickers or anything but the flower vase will help some. The car proudly tells everything.
As far as a Nazi design, I don’t think a lot of people even know what that is any more to be deterred.
I’m reconsidering this and have decide to blame the key board for misspelling everything I wanted to say, ha, ha.
I saw an SUV bumper sticker yesterday…
IF GUNS KILL PEOPLE, DO PENCILS MISSPELL WORDS?
CSA