Since I had never ridden in one of those before, only seen them and admired their coolness, I made a special effort to bat my eyes at this guy and get him to drive me to Denny's to meet our friends. We've been together a year now. It wasn't as though the car attracted me to him, but the car DID get my attention. It's not about whether the car indicates manliness. To me, the car should be interesting, and, truthfully, nothing from the past 15-20 years is particularly interesting.
Older cars have character.
Something else worth mentioning is the fact that this guy bought his VW after hearing YOU guys recommend them to one of your listeners. And later, after he had decided that the Volkswagen was the most Godforsaken vehicle on the road, he discovered that you felt the same way. In July he sold it while I was out of town and replaced it with a dull, white Ford Econoline abductor van. Fortunately he has a 1950 Chevy back in his home state of Oklahoma, just waiting to be restored, and he hopes to drag it back to Florida soon. Guy cars, chick cars . . .