Demographics Unveiled! Who Succeeds In Attracting Younger Buyers And Who Still Pulls In The Old Farts?

We’ve all heard the comments:  I don’t want to get a Cadillac, that’s my grandfather’s car!

A new study recently completed by TrueCar.com, showed that Mitsubishi, Mazda and Volkswagen have the highest concentration of younger buyers.  The study was completed in May 2010 and looked at the last full year of available data.  TrueCar also identified the best deals* on models for this demographic based on current actual transactions.

The list, which shows the brands with the highest percentage of buyers that are 18 to 34, is topped by Mitsubishi (18.3%), with its young skewing list of models that includes the Lancer and the Eclipse.  Mazda (18%), with the popular Mazda3 and Mazda6, and Volkswagen (17.6%), which features the list topping GTI and Jetta, were next with Nissan (15.6%) and Mini (15%) rounding out the top 5.  The industry average was 10.8%.

MAKE	AVERAGE AGE
MAZDA	47.0
MITSUBISHI	47.2
VOLKSWAGEN	47.5
HUMMER	47.5
AUDI	47.5
MINI	48.0
BMW	48.5
JEEP	48.6
ACURA	48.7
NISSAN	48.7
INFINITI	48.9
PORSCHE	49.1
DODGE	49.6
SAAB	49.7
HONDA	49.7
SUZUKI	49.9
VOLVO	50.0
GMC	50.1
KIA	50.2
TOYOTA	51.0
SUBARU	51.0
MERCEDES-BENZ	51.1
FORD	51.9
CHEVROLET	51.9
SMARTCAR	52.3
HYUNDAI	52.3
JAGUAR	53.2
LEXUS	53.6
CHRYSLER	54.6
CADILLAC	57.1
MERCURY	57.3
LINCOLN	58.7
BUICK	61.0

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dl767captain - 5/27/2010 1:06:10 PM

+4 Boost

That picture reminds me of sitting in the highschool parking lot early in the morning with all of us running from luxury car to luxury car trying to share homework, I swear my school looked like a BMW/Mercedes/Lexus showroom

thstone - 5/27/2010 1:44:17 PM

+10 Boost

Average of 51 years, median of 50 years, standard deviation of 3.4 years.

Conclusion: There are no "young" brands. In the big picture, regardless of brand, ALL new cars are the province of old people.

The average Mazda buyer is old and the average Buick buyer is slightly older. Its that simple.

Agent009 - 5/27/2010 2:42:43 PM

-3 Boost

Remember this data is across the entire lineup.

uaw_lax - 5/28/2010 12:09:43 AM

+2 Boost

Good point

sstainba - 5/27/2010 2:25:02 PM

+5 Boost

this data isn't very useful. they need to look at it like this: of the young people (<40) that buy cars... which brands do they buy? this data is skewed because a lot of young people can't afford to buy a new car or are given a car bought by their parents.

Agent009 - 5/27/2010 2:43:19 PM

-2 Boost

part of the equation for a younger market is indeed affordability.