The Unexpected Place Where 8% Of Americans Lose Their Virginity

When you think about sex, you might picture people in a bed. But there are plenty of other places people do it, including one particularly popular spot: cars. For a study published last month in The Journal of Sex Research, University of South Dakota researchers surveyed American college students — 195 men and 511 women — about all things related to cars and sex. A majority (59.77%) had done the deed in a vehicle, and 14% of those people — or 8.37% of the total sample — had sex for the first time in a car. Cars were more of a couples' destination than a one-night-stand setting, though, since 84% of people who'd had car sex said they'd done it with a significant other. But those who lived with their partners were less likely to retreat to their cars for sexy time (potentially because they had their own, more comfortable place for that). As Khloé Kardashian can attest, car sex poses some technical difficulties, such as limited space. Maybe that's why 48.7% of participants reported that their car-sex experiences didn't last longer than 15 minutes, and some actually reported accidents, like hitting the gear shift mid-romp. On the other hand, cars provide some advantages, like (relative) privacy, plus the flexibility to get it on wherever you want. "The universal value of parking in cars is that, for more than a century, it has offered a semiprivate, movable, secure, and available place for two people to have sex," the authors wrote, according to The Daily Beast. Whether car sex is the best sex, however, is another story: Less than half of the women surveyed said they orgasmed the last time they had sex in a car. That said, hooking up in automobiles does seem to create some special memories. A woman in the survey recounted having sex in front of a lake as fireworks went off; one man did it in the woods while 17 Drake songs played in the background. Sure, the study's sample wasn't huge, but its findings can certainly serve as inspiration when you've exhausted all of your go-to sex positions and toys. "Despite discomfort, body bumps, and risk of being caught, sex while parked was primarily a positive sexual and romantic experience for both men and women," the authors wrote. Plus, unless you've got a private plane like Khloé, it's a lower-risk alternative to the mile-high club.