The large variety of cars and trucks that automakers have produced over the last century gives us a vast selection with which to define our lifestyle. Trucks are for the working man and utilitarian heavy-hauler, mini cars for the eco-friendly, never-want-to-take-a-comfortable-road trip-again folks, midsize sedans for the family, large sedans for the family that can – if you have a personality, there’s a car out there for you. Maybe you’re driving the car of your dreams, maybe you’re struggling to keep the ol’ Geo Metro rollin’ – there’s a car for wherever you are in life. It’s a loudspeaker that’s broadcasting your message.

Seeing how important cars are to us as individuals, other people will naturally judge you by your selection of transportation as well – even decide if you’re datable based on what you drive. Sounds superficial? Would you board a Southwest flight with oil cooler lines dangling out of the engine nacelle? Judging by first impressions is what keeps us safe, and women just want to be safe. If you’re driving around a big, windowless, white van from the late ‘80s you can’t sit there and wonder why you can’t get anyone to go for a ride with you. You might as well just stop fighting it and put a free candy sign on the door. Alas, what you drive will either help or hurt your game – choose wisely my friend.

19 Women Leave: Ford Focus

via car magazine

Ok – for all you compact, rice-rocketing, front-wheel drive fans out there; let’s get something clear – nobody cares about your Focus bro. Unless it's putting down enough power to melt the wheels in one go and you slam it around hairpins like Ken Block you’re just a regular Joe like myself – nobody really cares about us. You can put a wing on it tall enough to hook up telephone wires but the only people who think you’re cool are the people that put wings on their slow cars too. Nothing that gets 34mpg on the highway is watch-worthy at the track. Quit with the rims and fins, quit with the stupid stickers and the cold air intakes and just buy a Ferrari if you want to be looked at. Can’t afford it? Well neither can I…thus I am wingless.

18 Women Leave: Jeep Compass

via canadian auto review

While you’re looking at the flashy red Compass tearing through the sand like it knows what it’s doing, a small piece of you might start to picture yourself in the driver’s seat. You might start to imagine the gallivant to be thrilling even. The more it wafts around your in your head, the more you think about yourself owning one. Let me bless you with one woman’s take on it after having driven a new Compass not even halfway through its first batch of assembly-line motor oil. The following excerpts are from her city-data.com post “…absolutely the worst car I have ever driven.” “The acceleration is so bad…I truly think it’s unsafe.” “…if I got out and pushed it up hills, it would go faster.”

17 Women Leave: PT Cruiser

girlcarguycar.com

Here’s one that I don’t feel like I should have to even waste a slot mentioning seeing as most of the general population knows how all-around terrible it is already. There is always one, however, and yesterday I caught a guy driving one with a big beard, bald head and even tattoos…so apparently NOT everybody got the memo.

The outside is a mash-up of a retro-throwback to an era long gone.

This car should have never been attempted, especially by Chrysler of all builders – they can’t even build a good original car. Trusting them to nail something like this was like giving scissors to a baby. I’m not even going to get started on the inside, if you don’t, believe me, you can go see for yourself.

16 Women Leave: H2 Hummer

lowrider.com

When General Motors bought the rights to the AM General HMMWV and converted it for civilian use, it was a good idea. I like it anyway. It’s not so much the idea of it but the idea that the public has the ability to, if they so choose, park one in their driveway. Low sales proved that it was too much truck for most folks however and GM did the next best thing they could to keep the name alive – build a mini-hummer on a Tahoe chassis. It was big, bulky, and horrible on gas but it only faintly resembled the H1's outer appearance – the performance did not translate. Lack of utility proved the H2 to be so useless that even girls know you can’t do much with an H2 but overcompensate.

15 Women Leave: Dodge Avenger

wikipedia.org

If your spidey-sense does not set off like alarms in your head when you get close to this thing you should get that checked. This car is as ugly on the inside as it is on the outside and performs on the road as ugly as the inside and outside combined. The Avenger has a cool name, and the buck stops there. Typical of the Chrysler styling, this car fell off the ugly tree that happened to be precariously perched on the ugly cliff overlooking Ugly Valley where it hit every branch, bolder, and rock on the way down and after hitting the ground it rolled into the meandering Ugly River nearby.

14 Women Leave: Daewoo Anything

via autonavigator

The name Daewoo is derived from the combination of the company’s founder, Kim Woo-Jung prefaced by the Korean word for great; in other words – Great Woo. Already a douchey move on its own, the self-affirmed company of greatness is anything but that, however; anything bearing the Daewoo name is quite likely a rolling pile of stink even with a top-tier KBB rating. Sadly, it's Korea’s third-largest motor company. You can only imagine what the rest of their "Big Three" look like. We, however, are not in Korea and there is literally no excuse in the world to drive one of these.

13 Women Leave: New Beetle

autoweek.com

I’m going to take a shot at Volkswagen here because, although I'm a fan of Bugs, I am not a fan of this bug. There was a time when you could get away with those body lines and gentle, sloping curves at every corner. That time is over and gone and there’s just no place for it here anymore. If we overlook the outside for a moment, the inside isn’t much of an improvement. In fact, it sucks even more. Huge plastic panels that are poorly designed both aesthetically and in craftsmanship make up the filler for an otherwise unimpressive interior.

12 Women Love: Chevy Camaro

redbubble.com

It’s stout, it’s sleek, it’s mean and the resonating exhaust notes from the 6.2L, 455hp, SuperSport V-8 ring like the angels as they open up the sky with their trumpets to usher in the rice-rocket rapture that’s about to be delivered in large doses.

Even if you decide to go cheap on yourself and spring for the 2.0L 275 hp turbocharged four-cylinder, 275 hp can be a very respectable number as long as you’re not sitting next to a ZL1.

You don’t need big cubes to make it fun anymore but you do need to be a smooth operator; the confidently-smooth body lines of the Camaro are accented with sharp-cornered edges that just may be the edge you need to stand out. It’s hard to go wrong with a Camaro.

11 Women Love: Jeep Wrangler

rockyridgetrucks.com

Of all the many avenues of possibility that exist in one’s selection of vehicle ownership, the statement that your whip makes is louder than your actual first impression – it is your first impression if you want to get technical.

Guys with Jeeps are sending a message: "I’m clean but rugged, capable but confidently reserved enough to get my message across subtly."

That message is the same message that you can send with a $3,000 lift kit on your brand-new crew cab Silverado – only Jeeps tend to get the point across with little more than a set of nice, off-roading rims and some knobby tires.

10 Women Love: Subaru Impreza WRX

via autotrader

Camaros are for street speed, Jeeps are for off-road romps in the dirt. But if you happen to like both of those things and can’t decide what’s more important to you, maybe a Subaru is where you need to put your money.

Subarus are well-known for their full-time all-wheel drivetrains and legendary boxer motors that – with the help of a little forced-induction – can prove to provide a surplus of power good for pavement or gravel.

Over 300hp gets blasted through the manual six-speed to the front and rear limited-slip differentials keeping you glued to the road – or haphazardly drifting around any dirt obstacles with a huge grin on your face.

9 Women Love: Scion FRS

caranddriver.com

The FRS is a mirror-image of the Subaru BRZ and was a joint venture between the two auto manufacturers. Subaru provided the engine and together they have formulated the perfect little roadster that may very well out-maneuver anything else it the price range. Admittedly, it’s sorely underpowered with a lack of engine options and no forced-induction (which is a big swing and a miss for Subaru and Toyota) but adequately makes up for it with a fun driving experience that tucks you deep within the low-mounted seats and makes you feel like you’re in much more of a racecar than it actually is. Your date is guaranteed to be impressed unless you try to race something faster than a Honda Accord.

8 Women Love: Classic Beetle

flickr.com

Not everyone loves bugs, but the people that love bugs, loooove bugs – it’s a disease for which there is no cure. I’ve beaten the heck out of a 1970 I called Old Yeller (you can guess why) and despite the occasional repair here and there (plus an engine when I blew it up), she ran like a champ – full throttle everywhere I went. They aren’t fast by default, but you can make them literally as fast as you can afford and the variety of styles you can pursue is endless. Slam it, rat rod it, lift it, restore it or just keep it grungy – there’s a bug for everyone.

7 Women Love: Anything from the ‘60s

rochestertaxi.us

Pictured here is obviously an example that most people will only ever aspire to, but this gorgeous ’64 Chevelle Malibu SS is one of my favorite cars of all time for so many reasons.

The things that make this car great are prevalent in many domestic ‘60s rides.

If you’re not one to get your knickers in a twist about some silly ozone layer and don’t mind adjusting your carburetor every now and then you’ll be rewarded with one of the most satisfying driving experiences you’ve ever known. Be prepared for compliments left and right regardless of the state of repair your classic.

6 Women Love: Chevy Silverado

cargurus.com

The legendary Silverado has transcended the ranks of the workhorse into a full-blown class of its own – upper trim options feature more creature comforts than you’d have ever thought trucks would come with and thanks to its long-standing rivalries with Dodge and Ford, the Silverado comes equipped with power and pleasure wrapped up in a slick looking package that’ll work you all week long and clean up nicely for that tail-gate bonfire. The high-quality audio system means you can try to impress your date with your crappy guitar playing skills over a Luke Bryan track and hope she’ll say “play it again.”

5 Women Love: Dodge Challenger

Saabkyle04

By far one of the most boldly-styled, new-era muscle cars we’ve seen yet, the Challenger not only lives true to its carbureted-heritage with proper design cues and respectable performance attributes – it blows just about everything else on the market out of the water.

With variants like the Hellcat and Demon, it claims the title of the Most Powerful Production Car in the World – ever.

Maybe you don’t have $90,000 to drop on a Demon, but the impression is not lost on the ladies (they think the Demon is a bad guy on Supernatural). You can even settle for a V-6 if you don’t mind guys like me laughing at you a bit as you drive by trying to make it as loud as you can.

4 Women Love: Mazda 6

autoevolution.com

Here’s one that delivers right about on par with what you’d expect from the automaker that has spent years cultivating a legacy of fun-to-drive machines that won’t let you down. Despite your expectations, you can’t help but be impressed by the trim package of the Grand Touring edition’s red-stitched leather seating, luxuriously styled design and awesome features from the iDrive-style infotainment controls down on the console to the sunroof button. Push the start button and feel the direct-injected, 2.5L naturally aspirated motor purr to life with the smoothness of summer silk. It’s not incredibly fast, but fast enough to be fun.

3 Women Love: Ford Mustang

via cj pony pals

Although they didn’t technically start it, the retro-throwback design fad that began in the early 2000s was a long-needed refresher for the automotive style sector. Prior to this, we were lost in a pile of bad body designs with lackluster performance and no hope for salvation.

The Mustang, probably taking cues from the ridiculously-sorry Plymouth Prowler, hit the nail on the head with the 2005 Mustang that accurately brought back the feeling of the ‘60s-era muscle car with a modern twist.

We loved every inch of it and since then Dodge and Chevy have laid their own throwback designs on the table, many of which are amazing. You can’t go wrong with this one unless you do something silly like get a convertible or a V-6.

2 Women Love: Ford F-150

hennesseyperformance.com

The Ford F-150 is one of the cornerstones of the domestic economy, and has been since nearly the dawn of the post-war pickup truck. It’s the best-selling truck in the nation in history, depending on how you extrapolate your data, and is one of the longest-running lines – launching in 1948, the F-150 line is 70 years old. Technologically up to date as they come, the newer F-150s make good use of small-displacement, forced-induction power to maximize fuel efficiency while still keeping a reservoir of power on tap. Stylish interiors and creature comforts appeal to the softer side of humanity and the crew cab has a lot of space in the back seat to uh…sit comfortably.

1 Women Love: Toyota Tacoma

setbuyatoyota.com

The Tacoma has been a landscaping workhorse for what seems like centuries. We’ve seen them brave the metro traffic in rush hour, the sorely overloaded steak bed gates bursting at the seams and a dual conversion increasing to a load capacity that the poor u-joints were never intended for.

The boxy old Tacos were mini, humble and reliable. Today, only one of those attributes applies – today’s Taco is mean, stylish, powerful and geared for whatever you can throw at it.

Breaking free of the mini-truck mold, the Tacoma is growing into adolescence and has finally hit puberty. They have special trim packages like the TRD loadout and you can get them from the factory with 278hp. It’s probably one of the best makeovers we’ve seen a model undergo in a long time.

Sources: japolink.com, caranddriver.com, motortrend.com, autoevolution.com, ford.com.