Statistic - Average age of Toyota buyers is 62 .....

Color me "not suprised in the least."

 

Wonder what the average age of a Prius buyer is. Someone did a poll sometime back, but I can't find it.

 

Were his lips moving when he said that?

 

I've seen that car and the drivers and would guess that their average age is around 12.

 

I have noticed the marketing for the Venza on TV, radio and billboard signs lately. Definitely targeted to the retired and "empty nest" segment.

 

Sounds right, I've never seen a teenager in one, I'd say 55 plus would be my guess, this would make a good pole if there isn't already one.

 

My salesman literally chased down (on the lot) an old man and woman who decided to test drive my car while I was buying it. Fob was in the cup holder. I'm not surprised about the age.

 

So for every 30ish year old buyer like me there is a 90 year old buying one...there's your "slow driver" problem folks.

 

Instead of all this guessing, I did search on the Internet! (A network of tubes with valves and technical stuff):
Toyota Puts Hipness Ahead of Sales for New Scion Cars (Update4) - Bloomberg

Average Toyota buyers age in US: 54, Scion: 39. Being the first hit I got, this was from 2007. Not sure how much it has changed since then.

 

Toyota for years have had the problem of older buyers - I believe that attracting younger buyers was part of the reasoning behind launching the Scion brand - the one problem is that while they targeted (and market to) 20 year olds with Scion it seems like older group buy them so they missed with the product.

It does make sense that Toyota and Lexus sell well to older folks - they make solid, reliable cars that are a bit vanilla and while not expensive, are on the higher end of average especially compared to brands like Kia and Hyundai.

All that being said, those figures seem a bit high - my folks and their friends are in their 70's and while they do trend towards higher end brands they also seem to buy and keep them rather than turn them over. In order to get an average in the 70's for Lexus they would need a few 80 and 90 year olds to counter out every 30 year old (in rough terms).

One last thing - a joke I heard on Car Talk years back - Why did Buick call their car the Century - because it is the average age of their buyers - in fact if I'm remembering it correctly it was because it was the first of their cars to have a speedo that went to 100mph.

 

It looks like the average age has been increasing:
In 2000, the average was 45 apparently: "The elders at Toyota also established a youth-marketing staff made up entirely of people in the prized 24-to-35 age group. All of this is intended to lower the average age of Toyota buyers by a decade, to 35." Can Toyota Get Its Mojo Back? - Newsweek

In 2003,"The average age of Scion buyers is 35, well below the industry average of 46, and Toyota’s average buyer age of 47. And most important: Scion is bringing in young male buyers, 80 percent of whom haven’t owned a Toyota before." Scion X goes nationwide in the US | Springwise

From: Fountain of Youth: Solstice Drives Down Average Age of Pontiac Shoppers - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums, referring to a CNW study, so take it with a grain of salt:
"At the same time, Toyota has seen a dramatic 11-percent increase in the average age of its shoppers, even factoring in its Scion youth brand. The average age of Toyota shoppers was 40.5 in 2005 and is 45 in 2006."

But still, 62 would surprise me. That's a pretty big jump from the mid-40's a decade ago. It looks like each study comes up with a bit different data.

 

Do you really believe everything a car sales person tells you?

 

This whole discussion is probably skewed by whether or not the car is new.

What is the average age of a buyer of a new Toyota? vs. What is the average age of a Toyota driver (of a new or used car)?

Two totally different questions here.

 

No wonder why Toyotas are SUAing into Farmers markets all the time.

 

Thanks. 62 felt too old and lexus buyers in their 70's is just complete rubbish.

 

Here's one statistic where I'm happy to bring down the average.

 

...guess all the younger owners hang out here on Prius chat.
Average age 39 here, right?