We’ve seen many studies about Millennials in the past five years, but the most recent look at Millennial car purchasing habits unearths some good news for Chevrolet and General Motors.
A new study from Autolist shows the Millennials prefer Chevrolet over every other brand that sells cars in the United States. The age bracket for Millennials is still rather loose, but many analysts peg those born between 1981 and 1996 as a Millennial. Those born in 1997 and after are part of Generation Z. That puts Millennials between the ages of 23 and 38 today. The study looked at 1,750 new car shoppers under the age of 36 to gather the information.
Autolist asked the question of which car brand speaks to your age group the most and Chevrolet came out on top of every other brand. Ford, Honda, BMW, and Toyota rounded out the top five. Interestingly, Buick and Cadillac were two of the brands Millennials least associated with. It’s likely many of them will never know Chevrolet is associated with both brands and part of the GM family. Fiat, Alfa Romeo, and Volvo were also named as brands Millennials are least likely to associate themselves with.
To back up Chevrolet’s top ranking, a previous Autolist study also showed the Chevrolet Silverado is the most popular full-size truck among Millennials as well.
Not only do Millennials like Chevrolet, but they’re also the brand the age group is most likely to consider when shopping for a new car. Chevy came out on top of Toyota, Ford, Honda, Dodge, and Ram in the same study when asked which brand they’d purchase today. Even better news for Chevy? The brand was the top response to the question of which brand a Millennial currently owns.
Autolist’s chief analyst, Chase Disher, said Chevrolet’s “Real People, Not Actors” ads are likely part of the success. They may be obnoxious, but the ads have also been praised for making Chevrolet seem like an accessible brand. Disher also said the no-nonsense and affordability appeals to Millennials, who are often budget-conscious in their decisions. The fact that Chevrolet was an early adopter of Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and Wi-Fi hotspots also likely contribute to the brand’s appeal.
Comments
Fakes news! If this were the case then why isn’t the Chevy Cruze selling and seeing drops year after year? Why is only the Silverado in the top 5? Few Millennial’s can even afford these things!
Why is Chevy killing off so many of it’s cars? Even the CUV’s are only mid level players like the Equinox and Traverse with the Rav4, Rouge and CRV handily outselling them. Even the Bolt, which should be attracting Millennial’s by the droves is selling in lower and lower quantities. So far all around me people are trading in GM products and going foreign in droves.
If anything this age bracket is giddy over anything foreign and is mostly seen driving Honda’s, Toyota’s, Bimmers and Hyundai’s.
Your logic that millennials buying car = sales leaders is hilariously flawed. Show some empirical evidence that contradicts the articles study, otherwise you are the one perpetuating “fake news”.
I don’t see it either.
I however are one who has bought a millennial a GM vehicle.
He says he will not buy another.
And at this point I’m not sure yet if I will.
O well numbers don’t lie, even if you don’t share them.
Long live GM.
GM needs to introduce 10 Year Warranties on first model year cars. I believe that would encourage a lot of sales they’re losing.
I find this very hard to believe!
90% of people I know (I’m a millennial, as are most of my friends) talk about/drive Toyota’s and Honda’s. It’s really sad actually.
I’m a die hard Chevy guy, and will be for life (unless of course they go full electric). Not going to lie though, that 2020 RAM 2500 looks much more attractive than the new Silverado HD.
I agree. I don’t think these results are accurate. They continue to shoot themselves in the foot over dumb things and are pushing their core base away. They are mostly all easily but most likely never to be fixed things too.
I can see that. No one in my age group (im a millennial) thinks of sedans as a dream car. We all want the SUV’s and trucks that we grew up with in the pre-2009 crash world. Nothing beats riding in a large SUV. The feel is incredible. for small cars though, I would never buy a Toyota when chevy discounts Malibu’s and equinox’s and ford the escape so deep. Sorry it would be stupid to buy Toyota financially. for millennials that are really in a cash crunch, the resale value of chevys and fords make them the best value to buy used. I would never buy a cruze. Right now I can get a Malibu for about 15000$ as listed brand new on autotrader.com, after incentives the cruze is at 14000$ why would you take the smaller and cheaper built car? I can totally see this as accurate.
I just don’t see Chevy being a fav for any generation.
Buick has been a wasted opportunity for GM. It should be an aspirational Lexus or Audi-like brand.
Millenials, at least the older ones like me, remember a simpler time in the world, before the internet, before cell phones, etc. Chevrolet somehow seems to symbolize an idealized past, yet also remains modern at the same time. The aesthetic is no-frills, basic, functional. Also, I’ve owned japanese brands and been disappointed. We all grew up hearing that GM was junk, and japanese brands were the only car to buy. Times have changed and people realized it. Marketing helped a lot. GM carefully cultivates the Chevrolet brand for this market.
Also, look at the Rav4. Toyota finally did a focus group and figured out that nobody wants a stupid looking vehicle, and now we have something that looks pretty normal and functional.
I have my first Toyota RAV4 and I really don’t see why millennials love them so much. Mine is a lemon and toyota doesn’t want to fix it. Give me a Buick or Chevrolet any day. P.S. how about a decent engine in the Buick convertible?
Paul, I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been selling (or in the auto business) for 15 years now. The first 11 with the same dealer (but on two separate times for a total of 11) which sold Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Honda. In those 11 years, the Buick was the best between it and Honda. Don’t get me wrong. All brand can and will have issues. All brands could still improve (on something). But between the Buick and Honda, the Buick was better based on what I sold as well as what I saw and talked to the mechanics (sorry, techs) about. Our dealership traded in a lot of Toyota’s and other import brands, and my personal experience in those 11 years was that both Honda and Toyota were no better than anything else. I am also friends with a guy who has been selling at a Toyota dealership for over 25 years now. Even he admits that he can’t understand why people think Toyota is so good. My take on this is that both Honda and Toyota are just really good at branding and spinning stories (good or bad) to make things appear better than they are. Not totally sure, but I’ve often said that they are tops in one thing: PR.
I now work for a Volvo and Mazda store and I see first hand the issues they both have. Example: a good number of 2018 (maybe 2017 and 2019 as well) 2.5L 4 cyl. Mazda CX5’s have major engine problems. So bad, that Mazda is replacing a bunch of engines on them. However, pick up any magazine and just try to find out about that. You won’t! My ex-wife has a Camry. That car was always nickel/diming us to death. Drove more like a 1985 Chevrolet Celebrity than a newer car. And with my job now, I deliver cars all over southern California for the dealership and I put a lot of miles on both brands. Yet the interesting thing is that I end up in a Lyft about 4-6 times per week and most of them are (yup, you got it) Honda’s and Toyota’s. You want to talk about being noisy? Rattles? Cheap interior trim? And yet people just keep buying them……..because.
All I can say is that at the end of the day, I get back in my little 2018 Buick Encore and smile all the way home!
I would credit the connectivity and social media advertising for the outcome of this study.
I drove full size Buick sedans for years but since GM got out of the full size car business I thought about trying a Chevrolet Suburban. My Suburban is a solid, excellent riding vehicle that actually gets respectable fuel economy considering its size and weight. Forget Buick !
I’m a Chevrolet man now and I love it.
You dont become a chevy man because you purchased a chevy! You are a chevy man because that’s the only type of car or truck you have ever owned!
You say a person like that doesn’t exist, your looking at one right here!