OUR motoring correspondent Steph Savill runs Steyning-based FOXY Lady Drivers Club, the UK's only motoring club for women, including a network of female-friendly approved garages, repairers and car dealers. Here, she looks at ways car shopping can be more fun for us in future...

THE new Mary Portas Channel 4 TV series about customer service starts later this month and includes an episode about used car dealers. This interests me because it ties in with our brand new network of FOXY Lady Approved dealers, which sits alongside our female friendly garages and accident repairers.

You can be sure that Mary will pick up on the potential for masculine car showrooms to cater more for women in future, knowing there will soon be more of us than male drivers on British roads.

Why isn't car shopping more fun, when the average cost of a used car is a whopping £9,000 and it's women who are the gender spenders here?

Why aren't car showrooms more female friendly?

Male-run garages and dealers often tell me they treat all customers the same, thinking that should be good enough for us women.

I then explain that if more women were happy with the image of the motor industry, fewer would feel the need to delegate garage trips to their partner.

Fortunately, women can trust the businesses we list as FOXY Lady Approved because we look for evidence of measurable signs of quality, expect them to sign a promise to 'never overcharge, patronise or sell women anything we don't need'.

We like to see garages and dealers employing female staff; either on a meet and greet basis, as an option when it comes to a test drive or as an alternative to the traditional male salesman.

My personal experience is that female sales staff do a great job when it comes to new car handover day, answering questions like “How does the sat nav work?”, “Can I have reversing sensors added?” or “How easy is it to fit children's car seats?” from their own informed experience and understanding.

Which leads me to ask Women Actually readers to let me know who they can recommend to others as genuinely female friendly car dealers in the Brighton and Hove area. Please either email me via womenactually@theargus.co.uk, tell us via the FOXY Lady Drivers Club Facebook page or fill in the Female Feedback section via the top right-hand corner link on all foxychoice.com website pages.