Gender Stereotypes

I have a 2002 Chevy Cavalier that has lasted me a good about three years now. I will be graduating May 2016 and plan to get a new car afterwards. After changing my mind about a hundred times I have landed on a Honda Civic. Once I made this decision I wanted to get some outside opinions. My brother and step-father had a common answer that rubbed my mother and I the wrong way. They said, "Yeah, that's a good car for a woman." For a woman? Why isn't it a good car in general? Why isn't it a good car for men too? After hearing their response I then told my boyfriend what they had said, his response was, "Well....it is". This all made me remember the paper we just wrote regarding gender stereotypes. What makes a Honda Civic a better car for a woman than for a man? Who makes these rules and preconceived notions? A day after this happened, my boyfriend and I were driving and we were approaching a Honda Civic, about to pass by, so I decided to see if it was a man or woman driving in hopes it was a man. Once we both realized it was in fact a woman driving, my boyfriend immediately yelled "SEE!" and I proceeded to remind him of a male friend of mine who owns a Honda Civic. Instead of realizing that a car is good for any gender regardless of what it is, he made an excuse as to why it was okay for my friend to own this car even though he was a male. But why make an excuse? Why is there a need for this?