Millennials Not Interested In Owning Average Cars But Do Lease The Hell Out Of These Brands

I would love to see the actual research that led them to this conclusion

I would question whether the information included the actual ability for Millennials to afford to PURCHASE the cars that they seem to lease.

Obviously - the Millennials have to lease these premium vehicles - they cannot actually afford to purchase them outright. And that statistic will only increase with younger people - as cars continue to escalate in cost while actual wages do not follow - and middle and upper middle class jobs disappear in this country. As the country goes - the people who actually purchase new vehicles is likely to get older and older - since they are the people who have the money available. With my last 4 cars each cost more than the price of my first house - priorities make budget decisions.

I don't see it as this reflecting Millennials so much as what TomM is saying. It's getting more car for your money. Customers--old to young--are responding to "free" leases. I suspect the research looked into buying habits of Millennials and found younger buyers responding to the attractive leases and concluded that this is what we need to know to understand them. I call faulty research methods.

The brands mentioned fall into two categories.

In the desperate-for-sales category are Jaguar (virtually dead), Cadillac (moving ATS, CTS, and XTS), Buick (moving bland but expensive), Scion (virtually dead), and Acura (compensating for the beak). Those brands have gobs of money on the hood to keep sales going.

In the not-so-desperate category are Ram, GMC, Subaru, and Mini. At Ram and GMC leases move buyers up from a buy to a more kitted out truck that makes (1) an instant profit, but (2) another profit when it's resold in 2-3 years.

Subaru and Mini play the game of getting buyers into a better-optioned, near-premium product for the "buy" price of a non-premium vehicle. Subaru and Mini also do great business in selling lease returns.

Add while I agree with much of what you said - I continue to believe that the actual brand is less of the issue with millenials - they simply cannot afford to purchase the cars they want. The way to test this is to simple look at the age of people actually buying the same cars. While there will be some millenials who can - I would project that the majority of actual purchases of premium vehicles would skew to Baby Boomers and older buyers.

Actually, my tribe--Millennials--are VERY brand conscious.

Luxury brands long ago figured out how to get their vehicles out the door to those that cannot afford to purchase and to get impulse buys.

From the buyers standpoint, leasing could be a easy means to their dream vehicle, a short cut to looking successful, may just not want to make a long term commitment of ownership, or may not feel long term security in their employment. Lots of possibilities but underlining is the lack of financial understanding.