VroomGirls In the News

It was an ironic twist that bottlenecked Los Angeles freeways kept me from getting to the L.A. Auto Show to check out some cars of the future. Ideally, they’re ones that will get better mileage, prevent more accidents, and leave a smaller footprint on the planet. So instead I steered over to the Hollywood Hills, where I caught up with Tara Weingarten. She’s editor-in-chief of the automotive news website VroomGirls, which makes car news a little more female friendly (an innovative idea in itself). I asked Weingarten about some of the industry’s current bright spots. And what’s coming next?

Tara Weingarten, founder of the automotive site vroomgirls.com, said ride-sharing could work regionally for some commuters but faced resistance in car-centric places like Southern California, “where drivers are used to being cocooned in their private auto bubbles padded with comfy seats, satellite radio, climate control and privacy, where they don’t have to make chitchat if they’re not in the mood.”

According to Tara Weingarten, former car columnist for Newsweek and founder of Vroom Girls, “Car companies still believe that if one of their cars is labeled a ‘chick car,’ men won’t want to buy it.”

Sigmund Freud, who famously and perhaps peevishly, asked the question, “What does a woman want?” might be surprised to know what a Vroomgirl wants. Of course, Freud never met a Vroomie, nor ever imagined such a thing.
I only recently became aware of the website, Vroomgirls.com, which caters to the female audience seeking different information about cars than do their male counterparts. In other words, what matters to the male buyer may be quite different from what matters to us girls.

Who are the better drivers, men or women?
TW: For sure, women.
EA: For sure, men. We don’t have to put makeup on. Women, I would say, are very careful drivers. And men are excellent drivers.
TW: Very aggressive drivers.
EA: Appropriately aggressive drivers.
TW: Whatever.

For some reason, gear ratios don’t interest most women.
But as women continue to reshape the male-dominated auto industry, they do want to know about the space in a car’s interior, its exterior styling and its fuel economy and safety ratings, Tara Weingarten says.
“Where men see eye candy in a hot car, women wonder, ‘How will my life be different if I choose that car?’” said Weingarten, 49, a founder of Vroomgirls.com, one of the newest of a small but expanding number of automobile websites aimed at women.

Tara Weingarten, editor at Vroomgirls.com, explains to TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie her tips for test driving, such as choosing a weekday and doing it at night. NBC’s Kristin Dahlgren reports.