Hello and welcome to Car Talk from National Public Radio with us Click and Clack the Tapper Brothers,

and we're broadcasting this week from the murky gender research department.

Oh, I thought it was the murky gender.

The murky gender research department here at Carthock Plaza.

A very interesting issue was raised this week in a letter that we received from someone named Amy Doyle.

And you know that I'm very interested in gender.

It's one of my favorite subjects.

But here's the deal.

Dear Tom and Ray, I recently helped my son buy his first car, a beautiful 1991 Toyota Camry.

Lately it seems I can't go anywhere without seeing these cars, so I thought that was pretty

good selling point.

Anyway, when I told a guy I work with, what car my son bought, he nodded knowingly and said,

Great car, but it's a girl car.

I know men are much more hung up on these things than women are, not just with their cars,

but in everything they do, say, where, you name it.

It's these ill-defined yet well-understood principles that keep my husband from ever wearing

pink clothes or pleaded dockers from ever going to the mall alone with another guy.

They can go to a bar alone, but not a restaurant.

And God forbid a guy should drive a girl car.

So, I ask you, since my son has obviously flubbed that one, what are the criteria by which one can distinguish a girl car?

And while we're on the subject, what other things should my son know about this stuff?

Okay.

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