Sheila's wheels, sexist? • Non-Gaming • Travel • Eurogamer.net

zErOb_cOOl 13 Oct 2005 16:38:53 3,237 posts
Seen 10 years ago
Registered 17 years ago

Have people seen those daft adverts for the new female car insurance company 'Sheila's Wheels' for 'Sheilas'. My mate told me a while ago these reduced rate, female only insurance companies (such as Diamond also) were going to be banned, as they discriminate against men.

I agreed with him, but this is nothing to do with a man vs woman sexist thing for me. Its just the fact that I'm being screwed over by other people, and I'm a careful driver. I see loads of women who fly around high speed in their car, and also some women drivers who simply don't understand you cannot pull out into an outside lane on a motorway when there is a car already in it.

There are shocking women drivers around, as well as agressive male drivers, and there are good women drivers, and there are good male drivers, but none are anything to do with me, so why am I being discriminated against?!

darrenb 13 Oct 2005 16:40:23 1,179 posts
Seen 3 days ago
Registered 19 years ago

Looks like someone is trying to start another argument..

unwashed 13 Oct 2005 16:40:41 1,857 posts
Seen 14 years ago
Registered 18 years ago

Unfortunately the actual accident figures don't back you up. If you're male and under 25 you're screwed unless you can get a company motor...

Ecanem 13 Oct 2005 16:40:58 5,039 posts
Seen 3 years ago
Registered 17 years ago

I discriminate against all drivers..

/love my bike, and public transportation is far from perfect but still ok here..

Jetset_UK 13 Oct 2005 16:41:19 3,578 posts
Seen 2 years ago
Registered 18 years ago

I think they now say 'also available for men' in that amusing Simpson ad type way. ie really quickly so that you don't quite haer it.

zErOb_cOOl 13 Oct 2005 16:43:31 3,237 posts
Seen 10 years ago
Registered 17 years ago

unwashed wrote:
Unfortunately the actual accident figures don't back you up. If you're male and under 25 you're screwed unless you can get a company motor...

Thats exactly my point. Why are we treated as 2 seperate groups? There are bad male and female drivers. I fall into neither of those categories though, so why can't I get reduced car insurance, when dangerous women drivers can?

and @ darrenb, there is a fine line between an argument and a discussion. Whether you, or anybody, crosses it is up to them.

zErOb_cOOl 13 Oct 2005 16:43:55 3,237 posts
Seen 10 years ago
Registered 17 years ago

Jetset_UK wrote:
I think they now say 'also available for men' in that amusing Simpson ad type way. ie really quickly so that you don't quite haer it.

Lol!

"This advert bares no resemblance to actual company"

"All figures quoted are purely fictitious"

Edited by zErOb_cOOl at 16:46:42 13-10-2005

Wobbler 13 Oct 2005 16:44:46 181 posts
Seen 5 years ago
Registered 20 years ago

As far as I know it's just down to the statistics for crashes. If you are simple looking at all the insurance claims made in the UK in a given year, some percentage of those will be made by blokes (with the rest being made by women, obviously). I think it's safe to say that blokes make more claims than women, ignoring all other factors.

Therefore, when the insurance companies set the premiums, they say that a bloke is more likely, going on previous statistics, than a woman, to make a claim, so they increase the premium.

[Ditto for all categories; red car drivers make more claims than blues, the drivers who do 50k miles per year generally make more claims than those who only do 5k, etc.]

Edited by Wobbler at 16:50:02 13-10-2005

darrenb 13 Oct 2005 16:46:34 1,179 posts
Seen 3 days ago
Registered 19 years ago

I totally agree with you... Some people just take things too far!!

zErOb_cOOl 13 Oct 2005 16:46:40 3,237 posts
Seen 10 years ago
Registered 17 years ago

Wobbler wrote:
As far as I know it's just down to the statistics for crashes. If you are simple looking at all the insurance claims made in the UK in a given year, some percentage of those will be made by blokes (with the rest being made by women, obviously). I think it's safe to say that blokes make more claims than women, ignoring all other factors.

Therefore, when the insurance companies set the premiums, they say that a bloke is more likely, going on previous statistics, than a woman, to make a claim, so they increase the premium.

Yeah I understand why, you don't need to explain. I'm playing dumb, but I'm not actually so.

I'm fighting the machine here man, fighting the machine!

Deleted user 13 October 2005 16:47:58

Look up "post-feminist" in a good dictionary or encyclopedia, and you will understand this ad. It's not sexist.

As for whether the product itself is sexist, well, that's quite interesting. It seems to me you can discriminte on any basis you like as long as its not sex or race...

zErOb_cOOl 13 Oct 2005 17:02:02 3,237 posts
Seen 10 years ago
Registered 17 years ago

kalel wrote:
It seems to me you can discriminte on any basis you like as long as its not sex or race...

Lol, now thats true.

@ Furbs

Because its not as if ALL male and ALL female drivers are bad drivers (ie. equally bad), and the only seperating factor is sex.

If you really have to do things by groups (and not individuals) there are 4 groups: bad male, good male, bad female, good female drivers.

Insurace companies should only divide by driving skill into 2 groups (ie, number of accidents a driver has had, which they do already) but now they are dividing drivers further by sex into 4 groups. I disegree with this further divide.

I could argue women are more susceptible to smoking-related diseases. Ya get me?

Edited by zErOb_cOOl at 17:04:09 13-10-2005

MrWorf 13 Oct 2005 17:06:53 64,187 posts
Seen 7 hours ago
Registered 20 years ago

I, for one, wouldn't mind riding Shelia's Wheels. All three of 'em. Heh.

.o/

Edited by Razz at 17:10:22 13-10-2005

Furbs 14 Jun 2007 22:45:51 45,740 posts
Seen 3 months ago
Registered 18 years ago

zErOb_cOOl wrote:
Thats exactly my point. Why are we treated as 2 seperate groups? There are bad male and female drivers. I fall into neither of those categories though, so why can't I get reduced car insurance, when dangerous women drivers can?

OK, so why not lump smokers in with nonsmokers when it comes to life cover? Theres nonsmokers who die young, and smokers who live past 80. However, all else being equal, you're more LIKELY to die young if you smoke.

Insurance sales is risk assesment, based on profiling, trends and statistics. Like it or not, its how they do business, and is why you sometimes benefit, and why you sometimes lose out.

Furbs 14 Jun 2007 22:45:51 45,740 posts
Seen 3 months ago
Registered 18 years ago

You could, and you'd be right to. Often women pay more or declined on health related insurances since they are statistically more likely to require hospitalisation.

How can you know if a woman driver is a good or bad driver? I'm sure (I dont know but I'm guessing here), if a woman with a bad record of crashes went to Sheilas wheels she wouldnt get the same premium as another woman. So they do break it down further into categories.

The male/female thing is just their top tier when it comes to deciding who to insure and who not to.