To create a “portrait” of the first car of a Russian driver, Avtoteka experts conducted a survey of motorists from different regions of the country who have bought a car in the past five years.
It turned out that 46% bought their first car in a sedan, another 20% chose a hatchback or liftback, 9% chose a crossover and station wagon each. Most novice drivers preferred a non-new car – 66% of respondents are convinced that it is possible to consolidate the skills acquired in a driving school on a used car.
For example, 34% of the participants in the survey bought a new car. Moreover, the older people are, the more people consider a new car the best choice for beginners. For example, of respondents aged 65 and over, 62% of respondents bought a new car as their first car, while only 28% of these respondents were in the 25-34 age group. This trend can be explained by the fact that young drivers expect that in the future, with more experience, they will be able to convert the car to a more recent model, while the older generation expects long-term use.
How much should a new car cost?
A third of respondents (30%) started with a car worth up to 200 thousand rubles. 42% of newcomers chose a car in the range from 200 to 700 thousand rubles. Another 19% noted that they owned a car, which cost an average of 700 thousand 1.5 million rubles. Finally, only 9% of newcomers preferred a car with an average price of more than 1.5 million rubles.
Based on what criteria is it chosen?
The main qualities of the first car for novice drivers are reliability and budget, these answers accounted for 44% and 41% of the votes respectively. 37% of survey participants noted that economy/low fuel consumption was also important to them. Another third (29%) consider safety an important criterion. A fifth of the respondents considers spaciousness an important characteristic of the first car. Another 16% of Russians paid attention to design and color. Power was important to 13% of respondents and cross-country ability and off-road ability were important to 12%.
Less than 10% of respondents mentioned parameters such as maneuverability, ease of parking, prestige/brand and the ability to sell a vehicle quickly.
The top 5 brands of the first car were Lada, Toyota, Kia, Hyundai and Nissan.
The survey involved 10,000 respondents from different regions of the country who bought their first car between 2017 and 2022.