A SURVEY has revealed that married women are amongst the biggest spenders in the nation’s car showrooms and the most likely to have a big SUV like a Toyota LandCruiser while married couples are the biggest spenders in terms of the amount of money they borrow to buy their cars.

The survey by Nodifi across more than 6700 finance customers in the past 24 months to May shows that mum’s taxi is most likely to be a Toyota LandCruiser and Dad’s taxi is more likely to be a Ford Ranger.

The data correlates to purchases based on settled deals for consumer vehicles over the 24-month period.

Nodifi provides cloud-based asset finance solutions to brokers and dealerships across Australia.

The data shows that married women of all age groups are spending big in the SUV market although single women aged 18 to 39 are opting, as always, for smaller, economically-priced cars with low fuel consumption. The Mazda3 is their favourite while single women aged 40+ favour the Mitsubishi ASX.

Single men in the same age group are choosing more powerful but older cars.

The data is also showing that the Ford Ranger is quietly edging out its top-selling rival, the Toyota HiLux, with only single men aged 18 to 39 favouring a HiLux, especially older versions from around 2013. Men aged 40+ favour the Ranger.

The data also revealed that in spite of Holden closing down in Australia, the Holden Commodore remains in very strong demand as a used car.

The following is a breakdown of the vehicles favoured by various buyer types:

Male – Single, Age 18 – 39 Top 3 Vehicles: Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger, Holden Commodore.

Male – Single, Age 40+ Top 3 Vehicles: Ford Ranger, Nissan Navara, Holden Commodore/Toyota LandCruiser (equal).

Female – Single, Age 18 – 39 Top 3 Vehicles: Mazda3, Hyundai i30, Holden Commodore.

Female  – Single, Age 40+, Top 3 Vehicles: Mitsubishi ASX, Hyundai i30, Toyota Corolla.

Male – Defacto/No Dependants, Age 18 – 39 Top 3 Vehicles: Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Nissan Navara.

Male – Defacto/No Dependants, Age 40+ Top 3 Vehicles: Ford Ranger, Toyota LandCruiser/HiLux/Mitsubishi Triton (equal), Nissan Navara.

Female – Defacto/No Dependants, Age 18 – 39 Top 3 Vehicles: Toyota LandCruiser, Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi ASX.

Female – Defacto/No Dependants, Age 40+ Top 3 Vehicles: Mazda3/Mitsubishi Triton (equal), Nissan Navara, Holden Commodore.

Male – Married with Dependants, Age 18 – 39 Top 3 Vehicles: Ford Ranger, Toyota HiLux, Mitsubishi Triton.

Male – Married with Dependants,  Age 40+ Top 3 Vehicles: Ford Ranger, Toyota LandCruiser, Toyota HiLux.

Female – Married with Dependants, Age 18 – 39 Top 3 Vehicles: Toyota LandCruiser,Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi ASX.

Female – Married with Dependants Age 40+ Top 3 Vehicles: Ford Ranger, Mitsubishi Triton, Kia Cerato.

Top Sellers (by state): NSW/ACT – Ford Ranger; QLD – Toyota HiLux; VIC – Ford Ranger; SA – Ford Ranger; WA – Toyota LandCruiser; NT – Toyota HiLux; TAS – Nissan Navara.

By John Mellor