Hispanic Car Buyers Prefer Imported Brands According to TrueCar.com Study

Study Examines Hispanic Car-Buying Behavior; Eight of Top 10 Models Are Japanese

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Apr 14, 2011, 06:01 ET

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- TrueCar.com, the authoritative voice in new car pricing and industry trend information, today released a study based on Hispanic car-buying behavior in 2010 that shows import brands and models dominating the top 10 list. Hispanic car-buyers in 2010 made up seven percent of all new vehicle retail purchases in the U.S.

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"The Hispanic market is very critical for automakers, being the fastest growing minority group in the U.S.," said Jesse Toprak, Vice President of Industry Trends and Insights at TrueCar.com. "The domestic automakers have some work ahead of them as the Asian brands have a stronghold on Hispanic car buyers."

Some of the key findings of the TrueCar.com study include:

The brand Hispanic car-buyers preferred most was Toyota (19.5 percent), followed by Honda (13.7 percent), and Nissan (11.9 percent). Domestic brands rounded out the top five with Chevrolet (9.4 percent) and Ford (9.3 percent).
Eight of the top 10 models purchased by Hispanic car-buyers were Japanese. The top five vehicles purchased were the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, and Ford F Series.
The brands with the highest growth among Hispanic buyers in 2010, compared to 2009 (with sales above 1,000 units) were Buick, Hyundai, Cadillac, Kia and GMC.
In 2010, among Hispanic buyers (age 18-34) when compared to all buyers from that age demographic, Mitsubishi was the most popular brand, followed by Nissan, Toyota, Suzuki and Honda.
The most popular vehicles in 2010 among Hispanic buyers (age 18-34) when compared to all buyers in that age group, placed the Nissan Sentra at the top of the list followed by the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa, Nissan Pathfinder and Scion tC.

TrueCar.com also examined the most current market prices and listed discounts for all of the brands and specific models in the Top 10 for Hispanic car-buyers. Below are the top 10 brands for all Hispanic car buyers and also for young Hispanic car-buyers:

Top Brands Purchased in 2010 by Hispanic Car Buyers			Top Growth Brands in 2010 by Hispanic Car Buyers
Brand	% Market Share	Current Discount % from MSRP	Brand	% Growth in Sales (YoY)	Current Discount % from MSRP
Toyota	19.5%	7%	Buick	76.8%	6%
Honda	13.7%	5%	Hyundai	48.2%	6%
Nissan	11.9%	10%	Cadillac	42.0%	4%
Chevrolet	9.4%	8%	Kia	40.3%	6%
Ford	9.3%	7%	GMC	28.2%	8%
Hyundai	4.2%	6%	Acura	28.1%	8%
Dodge	3.4%	8%	Infiniti	24.6%	8%
Kia	3.0%	6%	Mazda	20.9%	8%
Volkswagen	2.9%	5%	Volkswagen	20.8%	5%
Mazda	2.8%	8%	Audi	20.3%	8%

Below are the top ten brands and models that had the highest percentage of young Hispanic buyers (age 18-34) when compared to all buyers (age 18-34) and their current market discounts from MSRP:

Top Brands for Young Hispanic Buyers (Age 18-34) in 2010			Top Models for Young Hispanic Buyers (Age 18-34) in 2010
Brand	% of Hispanic Buyers	Current Discount % from MSRP	Makes/Models	% of Hispanic Buyers	Current Discount % from MSRP
Mitsubishi	15.0%	10%	Nissan Sentra	19.5%	8%
Nissan	14.5%	10%	Toyota Yaris	18.9%	4%
Toyota	12.6%	7%	Nissan Versa	17.4%	6%
Suzuki	11.9%	11%	Nissan Pathfinder	17.3%	12%
Honda	11.0%	5%	Scion tC	16.8%	2%
MINI	10.3%	2%	Toyota Corolla	16.8%	7%
Mazda	10.3%	8%	Nissan Armada	16.6%	13%
BMW	10.2%	6%	Mitsubishi Lancer	15.9%	8%
Mercedes-Benz	9.9%	5%	Nissan Cube	15.9%	5%
Cadillac	9.8%	4%	Nissan Frontier	15.4%	13%

For more information, visit the TrueCar Truth Blog where the full tables are available.

About TrueCar, Inc.

TrueCar, Inc. is an automotive solutions provider focused on changing how cars are sold by providing a significantly better customer experience while helping qualified dealer partners to gain incremental market share and reduce costs. TrueCar.com is a transparent, visual publisher of new car transaction data. TrueCar.com price reports help both dealers and consumers to agree on the parameters of a fair deal by providing an accurate, comprehensive and simple understanding of what others actually paid for the identically equipped new car over the last 30 days both locally and nationally. TrueCar, Inc. works with a national network of nearly 5,000 Certified Dealers that provide up-front, no-haggle, competitive pricing to assist some of the nation's largest and most well respected membership and service organizations. These partnerships include American Express, AAA, USAA and more than 60 others. Collectively these audiences represent over 1M in-market customers each month. TrueCar, Inc. is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and has offices in San Francisco. The company was founded in 2005 and has been profitable since 2009. With nearly 200 percent year-over-year growth TrueCar has driven over 250,000 sales and is developing a suite of transaction oriented products and services centered on transparency and radical clarity as a result of comprehensively analyzing market data and information. You can follow TrueCar on Twitter and become a fan of TrueCar on Facebook.

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 purchases 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.

Disclaimer

This press release and the information contained herein is for noncommercial use on "as-is, as available" basis and may be used for informational purposes only. TrueCar makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information contained in this press release and the results of the use of such information, including but not limited to implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. The information contained in this press release may include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Neither TrueCar nor any of its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates or respective partners, officers, or directors, employees or agents shall be held liable for any damages, whether direct, incidental, indirect, special or consequential, including without limitation lost revenues or lost profits, arising from or in connection with your use or reliance on the information presented in this press release.

Available Topic Expert(s): For information on the listed expert(s), click appropriate link.
Jesse Toprak
https://profnet.prnewswire.com/Subscriber/ExpertProfile.aspx?ei=94534

SOURCE TrueCar.com