The most influential factors for millennials when choosing a car

Date: 2017.11.21

Author Agneta Venckute  

In my previous article, I analysed the car purchasing habits of millennials. To understand even better what influences their decisions, I ran a survey that aimed to discover what the most influential factors are for millennials in their decision on which car to buy or lease.

More than two visits to the dealership

The survey questionnaire consisted of four questions. The first question, “Have you ever leased a car?” was considered the classifying question, as the respondents who answered negatively were not given any more questions. The survey was conducted between February 15 and August 15, 2017. The questionnaire was distributed among people of various ages, mainly students, and 50 responses were collected.

Around 40% of all respondents claimed they had leased a car at least once in their lifetime. However, of the millennials who participated in the survey, only 20% claimed to have leased a car before.

As mentioned in my previous article, the first impression of the dealership is highly important to car buyers. The survey asked how many times the respondents had visited the dealership prior to buying the car. The average number of dealerships the person had visited, according to the survey, was 3.14. Comparing two age groups, 21-36 (millennials) and 37-52 (Generation X), the millennials tend to visit more car dealerships (4 visits on average) than Generation X (2.8 visits) when choosing a car.

Differences between Millennials and Generation X when choosing a car

When asked what typically influences their decision to lease a car, the millennials indicate that the opinions of the salesperson matter as much as the advice of their family, friends and acquaintances. Comparing two generations (Millennials and Generation X) and their decision to trust a salesperson’s opinions when selecting a car, no significant differences were found: 62.5% of respondents from Generation X would be influenced by in this way at the dealership, and 66.6% millennials.

Of the millennials, 66.6% would ask their families’, friends’ and acquaintances’ opinions about the car they were considering buying. However, Generation X would not pay too much attention to this, with only 37.5% saying they would ask their friends when choosing a car for leasing.

Other factors influencing car leasing choices

Of the respondents, 11.1% would watch online video material to support their research. Automotive magazines, newspaper reviews and various consumer and shopping guides are trusted by 16.7% of respondents. The auto sector shows that chat rooms, blogs and online forums have significance for just 5.6% of respondents. The majority of respondents (66.7%) rely on more than one information source when choosing a car for leasing.