Research by AutoTrader.com reveals that women influence more than 80 percent of all vehicle purchasing decisions and are the sole buyers of more than 50 percent of all vehicles sold in the U.S.

To capitalize on this trend and help female buyers become more comfortable with purchasing, AutoTrader.com announced the launch of two initiatives.

The first is designed to capture attention, it’s called The Purse Powers the Pedal sweepstakes and will provide the winner and guest a trip to Los Angeles for the L.A. Auto Show for Nov. 19 through Nov. 21.

Roundtrip airfare, hotel accommodations, $1,000 spending money, a designer purse and tickets to the show will be provided.
In addition to the grand prize, AutoTrader.com will conduct two other drawings where the respective winners will be given a designer purse, as well.

The program began Thursday and will end 11:59 p.m. (EST) on Oct. 20.

The purse winners will be randomly picked out of the lot “on or around Oct. 7 and Oct. 14,” officials noted. Meanwhile, AutoTrader.com will randomly draw the grand prize winner “on or around Oct. 21.”

Once AutoTrader.com has the attention of females with its sweepstakes, the second initiative comes into play. According to the site, a "surprising number of women" at 75 percent, don’t feel certain or sure of themselves when visiting dealerships. Striving to change that, the Roadmap to Car Shopping success was launched not too long ago. It was developed with Courtney Hansen, host of Spike TV’s Powerblock and author of The Garage Girl’s Guide to Everything You Need to Know About Your Car.

For those interested in registering for the sweepstakes, AutoTrader.com suggests going to www.autotrader.com/roadmap to read the car-buying advice and then visit www.facebook.com/AutoTrader.

At that point, registrants can hit the “like” button and then obtain the entry form by clicking the Sweepstakes tab. They will then be asked a question regarding roadmap and will have to fill out more information there, as well.