SUVs overtake passenger vehicles as Australia’s favourite new car purchase
According to research, 40% of Australians plan on purchasing an SUV as their next new car.
According to new data from Roy Morgan, 825,000 Aussies aged 14+ who are intending on purchasing a car in the next four years are planning to buy an SUV. The previous favourite, passenger vehicles, dropped in popularity by 23.8% in the last 10 years and is expected to steadily decline further. However, SUVs have more than doubled (from 19.3% in 2009) in appeal within the same time frame.
Though passenger vehicles suffered a decline in intent-to-buy statistics, the faithful four-door sedan still saw 427,000 Aussies pick it as their preference.
The most popular type of SUV was shown to be a five-seat SUV, with 492,000 Australians selecting it as their next preferred vehicle purchase.
Who's most likely to buy an SUV?
According to the data, men are more likely (54%) to purchase an SUV than women (46%) and were also more likely to be aged 35-49 years old.
Of the people championing SUVs, 70% are employed and are also 134% more likely than the average Australian to earn over $100,000.
CEO of Roy Morgan, Michele Levine says:
"Contrary to popular belief, it isn't 'soccer mums' and people with young families who make up the biggest proportion of those looking to buy an SUV, rather they tend to be men who are married, aged 35 years and above, and without children living at home."
Good news for the underdog
There has also been a slow but steady rise in the popularity of light commercial vehicles, which went up to 9.3% from lows of 3.9% in previous years. These were seen to be the most popular among tradies.
According to the research, 35.4% of Aussie tradies opted for a light commercial vehicle, with buying a ute as their top choice:
"The data also shows that a growing proportion of people are intending on purchasing light commercial vehicles, driven mainly by their popularity among Australian 'tradies' – an important sector of the market for automotive companies producing utes, vans and trucks."
