Crossover Vehicles Survey: Category Poised for Significant Growth

The popularity of crossover vehicles is growing, according to sales data from Good Car Bad Car. The slightly smaller versions of SUVs come in many makes and models. But almost every major automotive brand now offers at least one vehicle in this space. So what do consumers think about this growing automotive trend? We asked 1,000 respondents about their vehicle buying habits and their thoughts on future purchases.

Vehicle Buyers

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest online survey, 73% of respondents said that they currently own or lease a vehicle. Of those respondents, 44% said they currently own a sedan. 22% own an SUV. 16% own compact cars. 15% have trucks. 7% own minivans. Another 7% own regular vans. And 6% currently drive crossover vehicles.

Future Purchases

Looking forward, 52% of respondents said they are at least somewhat likely to buy or lease a vehicle again at some point in the future. Of those respondents, 43% are likely to buy sedans. 33% are interested in SUVs. 22% are likely to buy trucks. 21% are likely to buy compact cars. 14% are interested in purchasing crossover vehicles in the future. 8% are interested in buying minivans. 5% are interested in buying regular vans. And 10% of future car buyers are still undecided about the type of vehicle they want to purchase next.

Crossover Vehicles

When considering future vehicle purchases, 44% of potential car buyers ranked price as their most important determining factor. 18% consider reliability to be most important. 17% care most about the type of vehicle. 13% care most about brand name. 4% look for good fuel economy. 3% consider vehicle size to be most important. And 1% care most about a vehicle’s tech features. Overall, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Chevy, Nissan and Dodge were the most popular automotive brands that future consumers said they’d be likely to purchase. Of those who are interested in purchasing crossover vehicles, Ford stood out as the most popular brand.

Key Takeaways

Crossover Vehicles are poised to experience a growing market share going forward. But the relatively new vehicle concept still isn’t as popular as some more established vehicle types. The bad news for automotive companies that want to push crossover vehicles is that the vast majority of future car buyers already have a type of vehicle in mind that they want to purchase next. But the good news is that many of the factors that consumers care about, like price and reliability, could potentially make crossovers more appealing when positioned against some other vehicle types. So automotive companies could potentially convince those looking to buy vehicles like SUVs or Trucks to consider crossovers as well if that fits with the company’s goals. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: SKYLINE CROSSOVER by MIKI Yoshihito under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on January 16-22 via AYTM’s online survey panel.