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FOR anyone in a relationship, this will come as little surprise.

Women decide what cars we buy.

DAMNING STATISTICS

80% of car-buying decisions are made by women
94% of women don’t trust dealers
40% of women aged 45+ dread car-buying process
70% of women and men agree car advertising is too masculine

As well as pretty much everything else, muttered every husband everywhere.

And it turns out what women really want is a black VW Golf, costing between £100 and £200 a month.

If it has the added bonus of leather seats, satnav and a sunroof, she’ll be one happy hermosa.

The Ford Fiesta is the second most popular car searched for by women on AutoTrader, followed by the Ford Focus and BMW 3 Series.

TOP 10 CARS SEARCHED FOR BY WOMEN

1. VW Golf
2. Ford Fiesta
3. Ford Focus
4. BMW 3 Series
5. Vauxhall Corsa
6. Audi A3
7. Vauxhall Astra
8. Mercedes C-Class
9. VW Polo
10. BMW 1 Series

Other fashionable colours are white, grey and blue and top options also include Bluetooth and parking sensors, as you can see in the full lists in this article.

But other data flags up serious issues for the auto industry.

A staggering 94 per cent of women don’t trust dealers, 40 per cent dread the buying process and a fifth admit to being baffled by car jargon.

Furthermore, 70 per cent of women and men agree car advertising is too masculine.

TOP 10 COLOURS

1. Black
2. White
3. Grey
4. Blue
5. Silver
6. Red
7. Green
8. Orange
9. Yellow
10. Navy

Fifth Gear presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson, writing exclusively for The Sun, has called for car firms to be more Apple.

She said: “You don’t walk into an Apple store as a woman and think, ‘Yuck, this is a really off-putting male environment’, but you do feel that way when you walk into a dealership, which is so wrong.

Confused by car jargon?

Women 19%
Men 10%

“Of course there are some family-friendly, female-friendly dealerships out there which make buying a car a pleasurable experience, but they are few and far between.

“The auto industry needs to catch up. It needs to be less hyper-male and more gender neutral, like the tech industry.

TOP 10 OPTIONS

1. Leather seats
2. Satnav
3. Sunroof
4. Bluetooth
5. Parking camera/sensor
6. Panoramic roof
7. Air con
8. Heated seats
9. Cruise control
10. Automatic

“Nowadays, women own Ferraris and Lamborghinis and Bentleys and all sorts of high-performance cars, as well as family SUVs.

“Where are the adverts showing a woman behind the wheel of a 600 horsepower supercar?

48.5m UK licences

Women 47%
Men 53%

“I’m a racing driver and would love to see more women shown in TV adverts for really powerful sports cars — in the driving seat, not the passenger seat or handing over the keys.”

lVicki is also co- presenter of The REV test on AutoTrader’s YouTube channel, with Rachael Hogg and Erin Baker.

Happy birthday Bentley

NO ONE gets a telegram from The Queen for reaching 99.

You’ve gotta hold out until you’re 100. So why Bentley has unleashed its best ever car a year early I’ve no idea.

Unless there’s something really special coming in 2019?

For the record, Bentley was founded in 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley – hence the WO number- plate on this Continental GT.

Right, let’s crack on. Oh my days. What a joy this car is. Mighty and majestic. Half Le Mans racer, half limo and 110 per cent guaranteed to make you attractive to the opposite sex.

That 635hp 6-litre W12 engine is quite ridiculous. It catapults from 0-62mph in just 3.7 seconds and can crack 207mph – with room for four people and their luggage.

It has astonishing ability for such a big bird (2.2-something tons) yet it feels totally controlled (all-wheel drive, air suspension, 48V electronic anti-roll bar, all sitting on a Porsche platform).

You won’t be surprised to learn the 420mm brakes are the biggest of any road car out there – and bigger than the wheels on a Fiesta. You’ll be even less surprised to learn it’s rather thirsty.

More like 12mpg than the official 23mpg – but if you can afford a 159 grand grand tourer, you won’t care.

Interior. In a word, exquisite. It’s like stepping on to a plane and turning left, it feels so damn special and soothing.

Lashings of wood veneer, polished aluminium, diamond-patterned leather and jewel-like controls, all handcrafted in Crewe.

Of course, the piece de resistance is the three-sided rotating display. One side with widescreen touchscreen, one side with three traditional dials and the third side as plain wood.

Very James Bond. Just tick here, sir/madam. It’s a £4,700 option.

But there’s more. The 2018 GT is also blessed with a digital driver’s binnacle, head-up display, night vision, adaptive cruise control, hot/cold massaging seats and more software code than 15 Boeing Dreamliners.

And to think I knocked the old Conti just retired for not having USB ports.

Last observation. Those headlamps are full-on B L I N and G and are inspired by cut glass whisky tumblers. They look class at night.

Fabulous car. Arguably the best grand tourer in the world.

Happy 99th birthday, Bentley.

KEY FACTS

BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT
Price: £159,000
Engine: 6-litre twin-turbo W12
Power: 635hp, 900Nm
0-62mph: 3.7 secs
Top speed: 207mph
Economy: 23mpg
Rivals: Aston Martin DB11, Ferrari GTC4Lusso

Win with Pirelli

Blenheim Palace. The birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill.

A masterpiece of 18th-century Baroque architecture.

And now, for one day only, home to more than 1,000 of the world’s finest supercars.

We’ve got ten pairs of tickets to give away for the Blenheim Classic Supercar Show on September 2, courtesy of the good people at Pirelli.

Eighty handpicked supercars will be displayed within the Great Court competing for the coveted Pirelli “Best of Show” award.

For your chance to win a pair of tickets, enter our free draw below by 6pm on Tuesday August 14.

Travel and accommodation not included.

Other T&Cs apply.

Reader's car of the week

My little homage to the Peugeot 205 GTi last week prompted Dave Ford to send in a photo of his Eighties hatch.

He says: “It’s a 1989 Mk2 Fiesta, originally a 950 Pop Plus but now a 2L Ford Zetec producing 151bhp with updated brakes and suspension and some period Ford RS interior.” Tidy.

My Pop Plus ended up roof-high in a ditch.

BRITAIN'S BEST-VALUE CAR

And the nominations are:

1. Suzuki Swift

2. Toyota Aygo

3. Kia Picanto

4. Vauxhall Corsa

5. Dacia Duster (pictured)

Vote now at thesun.co.uk/motorawards and you could win a trip for two to Dubai.

That’s another great deal.

Right on the Button

Six race tracks, six front-wheel drive lap records for the Honda Civic Type R – the last of which was set by Jenson Button at the Hungaroring.

He said: “It’s a mega bit of kit.”

Usher is set fair for rally

Fair play to Usher. He chose this 170mph BAC Mono to start the London-Tokyo Gumball 3000 rally.

It’s effectively a single-seater racing car with numberplates.

Let’s hope the weather holds.

Voom for one more, Thierry?

Renault has re-signed Thierry Henry, 16 years after starring in the first “Va Va Voom” Clio ads.

Henry will front the French firm’s sponsorship of Premier League football on Sky Sports – starting with Man United v Leicester tomorrow night.

He said: “It feels great to reignite my liaison with Renault.”

Brilliant idea

An inflatable roof rack. Fifty quid at Halfords.

Of course the clever people at HandiRack would like to think we’d use it for kayaks and canoes and camping gear and so on.

No sir. Tip runs.

News in brief

• We pay up to 14 per cent of our salary on car insurance, says confused.com. Premier League footballers? Er, just 0.2 per cent.
• Fact. Park all the cars bought last year end-to-end (that’s 10.6million, new and used) and they’d stretch round the world.
• Olympic god Daley Thompson is hosting a free pop-up gym with Bridgestone on London’s Southbank, August 14, 12pm-6pm. Register at nomatterwhat.uk.com.
  He’s a friend and hero but I’ll be too busy...

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