Driving Miss Crazy

'NIKOO?" "Baba!" Well OK, it's not going to happen, but the idea of an Iranian version of the successful Renault Clio advert series of the 1990s, featuring the minxish Nicole and her long-suffering papa, has a certain ironic appeal.

Following news that Iran's state-backed car manufacturers have designed a vehicle specifically for women – with features including electronic parking aids, a navigation system and a jack designed to make it easier to change a wheel – some of us have started asking why car firms in this country don't openly promote the fact their cars are designed for women rather than simply hinting at it in their ads.

Because, while Nicole may have ostensibly been sneaking off in her father's car, no-one was in any doubt that the advert – voted by ITV viewers as the most popular car commercial ever – was aimed squarely at the female market. It just wasn't considered the done thing to say so.

At the beginning of the 20th century, however, some car manufacturers thought targeting women was a great idea. Colonel Albert A Pope, president of the Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, believed "you can't get people to sit over an explosion". Especially ladies. He decided to concentrate on producing quieter, cleaner electric models instead.

Today's women drivers do expect more from their cars than the fact that "Delicate Gowns (are] Not Marred In This Roomy Electric". But I can't think of a female driver, however powerful she may like her engine to be, who wouldn't also appreciate a seatbelt designed not to criss-cross her breasts till her flesh bulges out like a trussed-up turkey. Most women I know would also pay a considerable supplement for a device that would stop the pedals scraping the leather from the toes and heels of her best Blahniks.

Unfortunately, female-friendly car advertising was destined to go the same way as the electric car for most of the 20th century, and it wasn't until Nicole and Papa hit our screens in 1991 that things began to change. Suddenly, rather than girls being sexy props for boys to rev their engines at, women were the heroines. An advert for the Peugeot 106 borrowed heavily from Thelma and Louise, two independent women using their car to escape a sleazy, stupid man. And more recently, industry observers point out the traditionally male-driven Ford Fiesta is now being promoted in a more female arena. The new model was first seen in public in a teaser cinema ad before screenings of this summer's Sex and the City movie and hit TV screens last month during Ugly Betty. The featured vehicle comes in a shade described as purple, but which looks magenta-pink to me.

Gavin Green of Car magazine says: "Ford wants to add sex appeal and style. If (it] gets across its message to female drivers, fine, but if the campaign is too overtly feminine, then it could be a problem."

So is the idea of cars for the girls really so patronising? In many ways it would be more respectful if manufacturers were to say "This is a product designed to meet your needs and tastes as a woman" rather than implying that a "proper car" has to be good enough for boys to want to drive too. Most women wouldn't buy a designer handbag based on the fact their male partners might want to borrow it. So why do car makers presume that's a factor?

Studies have found that – in general – female car buyers are more concerned with safety than speed and while mothers do most of the school runs it makes sense that child-friendly features are popular too. But many of the features of the Iranian Lady Mobile (or whatever it's called) would surely be appreciated by any driver.

Now, the signs of my spatially unaware brain are scraped large across every corner of my own well-loved, but worse-for-wear Toyota Starlet, but why would anyone object to an electronic parking aid or a jack designed to make it easier to change a wheel? I've watched all these guys I've persuaded to change my tyres over the years, and even the muscular ones struggled at times.

But the car industry may take some convincing. Mazda's UK marketing director said recently the company preferred ads "with a slight male bias. If the ad isn't too blokey, women won't be turned off. But if an ad is remotely feminine, you can turn off men."

Well, if male drivers find such features emasculating then let them ruin their trousers trying to loosen a recalcitrant tyre or scrape their own bumpers on lurking bollards, but don't force women to suffer too. Bring on the Lady Mobile.