TrueCar Identifies 'Youngest' Auto Brands

SANTA MONICA, Calif., May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study recently completed by the auto industry pricing and trend analysts at 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(1) on models for this demographic based on current actual transactions.

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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%.

"Even though customer loyalty is not what it used to be, capturing young buyers is still critical to the longevity of the automakers," said Jesse Toprak, VP of Industry Trends and Insights at TrueCar.  "Not only do these younger consumers buy cars for themselves but they also often influence purchase decisions made by their families and friends."

On the flipside, the brands that have the lowest percentage of buyers in that age range are Detroit mainstays Buick (3.6%), Lincoln (4%) and Cadillac (5.1%).  Those three makes manufacture eight of the 10 vehicles with the lowest percentage of buyers under 34 in the study, with the Cadillac DTS (1.1%) at the very bottom of a list that includes two Cadillacs, two Buicks and four Lincolns.

Making this information more valuable for consumers is TrueCar.com's list of the Top 10 Models for Young Drivers that includes the potential discount from MSRP.  Topping the list – which is made up of models with the highest percentage of 18- to 34-year-olds within the make – is the Mitsubishi Lancer, which shows a possible discount of 25%(2).  Both the Nissan Titan and the Jeep Commander are showing potential discounts over 30%.  

The full list, as well as the full list of brands by age, can be viewed at the TrueCar Truth Blog.

TrueCar offers unbiased pricing information on all current model new cars.  The results are based on actual transaction data and deliver a price that reflects the average price paid on a local, regional or national basis.  TrueCar recently launched their upfront pricing program that matches consumers with dealers willing to sell the chosen car for the average paid(3) price, or better.

About TrueCar

TrueCar is the authority in new car prices.  We show car buyers and car dealers how much people actually paid for a particular car in a specific local area.  With TrueCar pricing, both new car buyers and new car dealers can know at any time what is considered a good or great price on a new car. Consumers no longer need to walk into a dealership partially informed and fully suspicious – using TrueCar they walk in knowing the price of a fair deal. Dealers benefit by TrueCar's real-time, unbiased information about marketplace pricing, helping them price cars for increased sales, and ultimately gaining market share over other dealers.  Our innovative new car pricing service is offered free of charge on our website at www.truecar.com, on our mobile site at mobile.truecar.com, and via syndication of our tools and pricing data to leading automotive research sites throughout the web. 

About TrueCar Data

TrueCar obtains data directly from car dealers, respected dealer management system (DMS) providers, and well-known data aggregators within the automotive space. We also acquire vehicle configuration data, customer and dealer incentives data, financing and loan data, vehicle registration and insurance data, and much, much more.  TrueCar is insatiable about data with our goal to find 100% of all purchase transactions, even if that means finding the same transaction multiple times from multiple sources within the car-buying ecosystem.  Our data is among the most timely and comprehensive in the industry, as we are able to process most car sales within a week of the actual sales date, and have a substantial fraction on the site within 48 hours of the actual sale.  TrueCar believes the greater our informational accuracy, the greater benefit we provide to both dealers and consumers.

(1) "Best deals" refers to vehicles identified by TrueCar as having the highest projected discount from MSRP including all applicable incentives.

(2) Discount is national average from MSRP including incentives.

(3) "Average paid" refers to the national average price paid for a vehicle, based on the most recent transactional data.

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Jesse Toprak

SOURCE TrueCar