A survey of over 500 MyCarCheck.com customers has revealed highlighted the differences between male and female perspectives on motoring.

While both men and women placed sale price at the top of their list of priorities, the 355 male respondents followed this with “look and style” while the 190 female respondents said “fuel efficiency”.

The most important factor in a new car purchase was the first of four questions posed to My Car Check customers in the survey carried out in July.

Head of My Car Check, Roger Powell, said: “For the vast majority, price is always the most important consideration; people set a budget and then see what they can get for the money.

“The secondary driver is where we see clear differences along gender lines. Women are most concerned with fuel efficiency, a significant ongoing cost of ownership, while men are more concerned with image, the ‘what will my mates think?’ factor.”

Asked what element of the car buying process they were least comfortable with, men said “negotiating price”, while women were ill at ease with vehicle inspections.

Powell said: “On the scariest aspect of car buying, again, there was a clear difference according to gender. Women worried most about inspecting the vehicle, while men worried most about the price negotiation.

“The fact is the average buyer, male or female, won’t buy a car very often and won’t have great technical knowledge. In those circumstances, the sums involved can make the process stressful, and with good reason too: almost half of all used vehicles searched on MyCarCheck.com have a warning against them.”

When rating themselves as drivers, 47.8% of female respondents to the My Car Check survey described themselves as “good” compared to 60.7% of male respondents.

Meanwhile, 47.8% of women said they were “competent” compared to 36.1% of men.

Men and women agreed that one way systems were their most disliked driving situation (29.7% for women and 29.6% men), followed by roundabouts.