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It would be the equivalent of strolling into a St. Tropez casino wearing a tuxedo with turquoise blue Crocs.

A guy is never fully dressed without the right car, some say.

A 2006 report on Forbes.com, which ranked the favorite new-model cars among men and women, confirmed the obvious: Men prefer high-performance cars and are willing to spend as much as $100,000 to buy them. Among the top guy cars were the "brutish" Chevrolet Suburban C2500 SUV. It tied for the top spot with the Meredes-Benz S65 AMG Sedan.

"What you drive says a lot about you," says Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, the California-based company that generated the data for the Forbes article. "A car represents you in a way that most other consumer products you purchase don't."

The name of a car can be fraught with subtext. When Carroll Shelby, legendary race car driver and automotive designer, helped design a Dodge sports car in the muscle car tradition, that car was the Dodge Viper SRT-10 -- not the Dodge Oprah.

"You want the name to suggest something menacing or macho," says Tony Swan, senior editor at Car and Driver magazine.

Rather than buy cars as "date bait," guys often buy cars that will impress other guys, Swan says.

"If you're driving a Corvette, it says something about you that a Ford Taurus is not going to say," he says.

But if a fellow opts for the former, they could be doing so for any number of reasons.

"Are they buying it for performance or are they buying it for looks?" Swan says "It's a little bit of each. I'd say it depends on the individual."

Insurance executive Jay Black of Mt. Lebanon loves Corvettes. He owns a 1999 Corvette, as well as a 2006 Dodge Charger. His first love was a 1972 Corvette that he coveted from boyhood. He bought one, but eventually sold it.

"I personally loved the car because I always wanted one, but I didn't really enjoy the attention," says Black, 47. "Some people would seek a car for that purpose, to be the envy of somebody. I was never very comfortable with that."

A marketing major in college, Black can appreciate the talismanic appeal of a good guy name. After all, Mazda re-introduced their Miata sports car as the MX-5 Miata partly in order to convey a more masculine product. But it would take more than that to get Black to buy a Miata MX-5.

"I try to cut to what the vehicle is," he says. "I like them based on what they are. I happen to think Viper is a good name for the Dodge Viper."

But would he buy it if it were named the Dodge Cuddle?

"Yeah, and probably take the name-plate off," he says.

A car can telegraph clues to a guy's economic status. But Susan Dunhoff, founder and owner of the Modern Matchmaker in Squirrel Hill, says some women who judge a guy on the kind of car he drives are acting too hastily.

"A man should not be judged by his car," Dunhoff says. "But quite often, a man's car is an extension of his persona. The male species are very visual creatures. "

That said, is it possible for a guy to project that alpha-male image while driving, say, a Volkswagen Beetle?

"I'll argue yes, you can if it's accessorized properly," says Joe LaMuraglia, founder and publisher of Gaywheels.com. "You've got a Beetle and you make it the turbo Beetle and it's black and you put some race wheels on it. Attitude and accessories can make anything."

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