Appealing Autos: does your car affect your online swipeability?
Shania Twain famously said having a car wouldn’t impress her much. But statistically does that claim hold water?
At MoneySuperMarket, whether it’s finding the right insurance policy, credit card or broadband deal, we’re all about helping you find the right match.
With dating apps exploding in popularity, our MoneySuperMarket match making team has crunched the numbers to find out if your car affects your online ‘swipeability’.
The Appealing Autos study
Between June and August 2024, our Appealing Autos study created a series of identical dating profiles in multiple cities across the world, where the only varying factor was the make and model of the car featured in the profile.
We tested 100 models of vehicles from 34 car brands to gauge how the car you drive affects your chances of landing a date.
In the study we looked at a variety of genders, including non-binary. However, due to our minimum sample size we were only able to draw conclusions from profiles listed as ‘male’ and ‘female.’ In both cases, our test profiles swiped and matched with all other genders and age groups.
Can a car raise your kerb appeal?
Our study found that in our control group with no car, a male profile can expect a match rate of around 6% from their dating app swipes. Our female control profile with no car achieved a 49% match rate.
That means, on average dating app users typically have a match rate of 27%, although that’s higher for women.
Does adding a set of wheels steer the odds in your favour?
Contrary to country legend Shania Twain’s view, our study found that your car can in fact impress people on dating apps, though how much it matters comes down to a few different factors.
In most cases we found that featuring a car in a dating profile had a positive impact on match rates, raising chances of a successful match to 34% overall (23% higher than no car), 56% for women (15% higher than no car), and a staggering 12% for men, almost doubling their chances compared to no car appearing in the profile at all.
Hot wheels, the most match making motor brands
According to our study, the car brands most likely to land you a date are Porsche, Tesla, Polestar, Jaguar and Range Rover, with the top 5 staying the same across both male and female profiles.
Rounding out the top 10 were Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen who all came within just a few percent of each other, with Dodge taking the 10th spot.
Porsche drivers were the most likely to get swiped, with an average match rate of 39%, two-fifths higher than the overall ‘no car’ rate.
Among male profiles this shot match rates up to a whopping 17%, 162% higher than the male ‘no car’ profile.
Tesla featured most heavily in the top 10, taking three of the top 10 spots for the Model S, Model Y and Model 3, with the infamous Cybertruck also proving to be a hit.
The best car models for singletons
If you’re looking for the best possible car to boost your dating chances and are willing to splash out for the privilege, then according to our study, the Porsche Taycan is your best bet.
The all-electric Taycan came in at number one overall, with a swipe rate of 39%, up 43% from the ‘no car’ control group.
The Taycan was also the best performing car for our female profile, pulling in a match rate of 62%, boosting your chances of getting a date by over a quarter (27%), and narrowly edging out the 718 Boxster, Tesla Model S, Audi e-tron GT, and Chevrolet Corvette, in a close top 5.
However, when it came to our male profile, the luxury Taycan came second to a surprising first place winner, the Volkswagen I.D Buzz, making the new electric throw- back camper the most desirable car for men to drive.
In the study, male I.D Buzz owners enjoyed a chart-topping match rate of nearly 17%, a whopping 173% higher than the no car profile of just over 6%, more than doubling their odds.
The best performing brands were similar for both our male and female test profiles, with higher end, more expensive models winning out against budget friendly cars.
There were some notable differences when it came to the types of cars would-be matches found most appealing.
When it came to our female profiles, sporty vehicles and coupes performed slightly better than other cars, while for male profiles SUV vehicles were favoured.
For instance, while the Chevrolet Corvette (5th, +24%) and Ford Mustang (13th, +23%) featured highly on our female profile list, they didn’t perform as well on our male profiles. Likewise, while the Volkswagen ID.Buzz topped the men’s list (1st, +170%), it placed 13th on the women’s list. Looking at all 100 models in the study, we found:
Both men and women are more likely to get a match if they have a prestige badge car.
Having a Porsche or Tesla in your dating profile gives you the highest swipe rate.
Women who drive sporty coupe cars are more likely to get matched. However, larger cars such as SUVs perform better for male profiles.
The Porsche Taycan (+27%) and Volkswagen ID.Buzz (+170%) are the cars most likely to land women and men a date, respectively.
Sparks fly with electric cars
Across the board, electric cars performed better than their petrol and diesel counterparts in our study, with EV friendly profiles attracting an average of 15% more swipes than others, rising to as much as 86% more for our male dating profiles.
In our combined list, 7 out of the top 10 cars were electric suggesting that being environmentally conscious could give you a boost in the dating game.
Regardless of the car you drive, make sure you’re getting the right cover at the right price with MoneySuperMarket’s Car Insurance. What’s more, when you buy car insurance with MoneySuperMarket you’ll become a member of SuperSaveClub our rewards club exclusively for MoneySuperMarket customers.
SuperSaveClub members get unlimited access to free days out at thousands of venues nationwide for a whole year, worth £180*. Plus, you can earn up to 8% cashback from a range of top brands when you shop through us.
And that’s not all – you’ll also earn rewards of up to £15 every time you go on to buy another qualifying product through us.