February 14 is Valentine’s Day! The argus celebrates the feast of lovers in its own way with exclusive statistics provided by our partner NGC-Data®. It shows that women prefer city cars, led by the Dacia Sandero, Peugeot 208 and Toyota Yaris.
The automobile still appeals to both men and women, even if the latter are still fewer in number to register vehicles. In 2021, according to statistics from our partner NGC-Data®, only 236,402 took this step, compared to more than 420,000 men. The data provided to The argus are those taken from the SIV (Vehicle Registration System) file and only take into account sales of new vehicles to individuals. Businesses were excluded.
Women prefer city dwellers…
When the choice of a car presents itself, women are mainly moving towards a city car rather than an SUV, although this segment is experiencing growing success and the small models are tending to disappear. It must also be said that girls most often use the second household vehicle. They therefore do not have the same requirements in terms of size and performance. According to our figures, the average age of female owners is 52 years old.
Here are the 10 most purchased cars by women, by number of registrations, in 2021:
- 1) Dacia Sandero: 24,681 registrations
- 2) Peugeot 208: 14,699
- 3) Toyota Yaris: 9,105
- 4) Renault Clio: 9,000
- 5) Citroën C3: 8,278
- 6) Renault Twingo: 7,831
- 7) Peugeot 2008: 7,314
- 8) Renault Captur: 6,533
- 9) Mini Cooper: 5,993
- 10) Volkswagen Polo: 5,455
Among new car buyers in 2021, 36% were women. Now let’s see which models are more preferred by these ladies. To establish this top 5, we compared the percentage of registrations achieved by girls and boys on the same model. City cars are still in the lead, with a clear attraction for Asian models when one might have expected an unchallenged domination of the Fiat 500.
Top 5 cars sold mainly to women in 2021:
- 1) Toyota Aygo: 64.8% of buyers
- 2) Hyundai i10: 64%
- 3) Suzuki Swift: 62.8%
- 4) Kia Picanto: 61.5%
- 5) Min: 60.7%
NGC-Data® statistics have also highlighted that the only Ferrari Monza bought in 2021 in France had been bought by… a woman ! It should also be noted that 45 girls offered themselves an Alpine A110 and that 41 others fell for a Porsche 911.
… men favor SUVs!
Among men, the average age of buyers is 53 and the trend is clearly towards SUVs. Corn the model that sold the most to men in 2021 is the same as for women: it’s the Dacia Sandero. It generates 9% of global sales. It is not surprising to find the Romanian city car in this position, since it once again won the title of best-selling car to individuals last year, with a clear lead. On the other hand, the top 10 best-selling models for men include more rugged models, including the Peugeot 2008, Renault Captur and Dacia Duster.
Top 10 best-selling models for men
- 1) Dacia Sandero: 37,591 registrations
- 2) Peugeot 2008: 19,126
- 3) Peugeot 208: 18,009
- 4) Renault Captur: 16,931
- 5) Dacia Duster: 16,541
- 6) Tesla Model 3: 13,776
- 7) Renault Clio: 12,046
- 8) Peugeot 3008: 9,605
- 9) Toyota Yaris: 8,583
- 10) Renault Zoe: 8,340
On the vehicle side more masculine than women, that is to say whose share of sales was greater among these men than among women, the Tesla Model 3 comes in first ahead of the Peugeot 3008 and the Dacia Duster, if we exclude the models too little distributed to be truly representative. Finally, for both men and women, the top 3 brands are made up of the same firms, namely Dacia, Renault and Peugeot.
How do Valentins and Valentines roll?
The NGC-Data® statistics also allowed us to have fun around the first names Valentin and Valentine, which are a little out of fashion. In 2021, they registered only 629 vehicles out of more than 700,000 sold to individuals. The Valentins mostly bought Peugeot 208s (57 units), Tesla Model 3 (45 units) and Dacia Sandero (40 vehicles). Among the Valentines, the top three is made up of the Dacia Sandero (12 units), Renault Clio (10 units) and Peugeot 208 (9 units).
