Car Briefs -- Finally, A Woman's Car Magazine

Only in American Woman Motorscene magazine can you read about a car's "grocery-getting potential."

Sure, there's also talk of peak horsepower and powertrain options. But editor and publisher Courtney Caldwell offers practical, jargon-free prose for women in the magazine that bills itself as the first of its kind for women.

All the articles and auto evaluations are written by women, and include a glossary describing terms such as body roll and all-wheel-drive.

"We're not trying to make a mechanic out of (readers) but would like them to be more informed, so they don't get taken advantage of by some idiot salesman," Caldwell says.

Upcoming issues of the bimonthly will feature articles on "Your Teenager's First Car," "How to Prevent Personal Attack at Your Vehicle" and "When Your Car is Sexier than Your Man."

The October issue explores the "Sticker Sucker Syndrome," in whichwomen pay more than men for their vehicles.

The magazine, based in Santa Monica, Calif., is starting to attract ads from major car makers and brands, and it's just about breaking even now, Caldwell says.

Those advertisers and Caldwell realize the shortsightedness of ignoring women. Women buy 47 percent to 50 percent of all new cars in the United States and influence 80 percent of all car-buying decisions.

COLOR PURPLE HEATING UP

Green is the red-hot car-color right now, and that means it's probably close to passe. Once everybody discovers what's in, after all, it's out.

"Purple is the next hot color," Mazda color and trim designer Colleen Goodill says. "It's going to replace green."

At Mazda, the purple on the top-of-the-line 929 is a deep, reddish purple, called bordeaux, suggestive of red wine.

Neon, Chrysler's small car due Jan. 2, embraces purples - raspberry and iris - to appeal to progressive tastes of Generation X, the twentysomethings. "Neon begs for some exciting colors," Chrysler designer Trevor Creed says.

"Purple is coming on strong in home furnishings and clothing," Lexus planner Don Brown says. But, he adds, "You don't want to call it purple."

On the Lexus ES300, it's dark amethyst, a midrange purple. At Infiniti, the dark-purple Q45 luxury sedan is mulberry frost.

Beyond purple? Orange. Designers are eyeing shades from poppy to rust - though no automaker would call a car-color rust. Isuzu, in fact, might be ahead of the curve. It just killed ultraviolet mica - purple - on its youth-oriented Amigo sport truck. For '94, purple is replaced by sunburst orange.