Maybe there's something in the Y chromosome that makes being in the passenger seat cause for angst.

"From the department of obvious things comes a poll indicating a third of men are afraid of their female partners' driving habits," writes Jalopnik. The survey was conducted by OnePoll.com

We should note that the poll was by no means scientific. It used a self-selecting sample of men who visited the OnePoll site. "Of the three thousand men polled, a majority said they feel they're better drivers than the women in their lives," says WITI, a Fox affiliate in Milwalkee.

The UK's Telegraph writes that, of men who took the poll, "One in ten said they had been forced to grab the steering wheel as their partner took her eyes off the road and careered towards the [median]."

We wonder if there's a separate study investigating if women drivers think their partners need to grow a pair. Then again, how women drive isn't the only source of in-car relationship conflict.

The New York Times writes about another study that found "nearly 70 percent of people admitted being involved in an argument in a car at least once a month; 18 percent confessed they had in-car fights at least once a week. All this despite the fact that many people realize how dangerous this can be. In the same survey, 25 percent of respondents said they thought fights could distract a driver and lead to an accident."  

The cause of most of the conflict? Disagreements over directions. Sixty-five percent of the reported fights started because of navigation skills (or lack thereof). The Times adds, "More telling, perhaps, is the fact that 85 percent of passengers complained that fights began because the driver would not ask for directions (you know who you are, guys). Women also complained that men never checked the directions before getting behind the wheel.”

If you're in the market for a new car -- even if you're not going to let your partner drive it --  check out the U.S. News rankings of this year's best cars as well as this month's best car deals.