Which car Russians dream about in 2019?

How the passenger car preferences of Russians changed - this became the subject of another research by AUTOSTAT analytic agency and Auto Mail.ru portal. A joint ‘Dream Car’ online survey, where more than 9,500 respondents* took part, was carried out in June 2019. Then we compared the results with the results of the similar survey of May 2018.

Like a year ago, the overwhelming majority of respondents believe that the ‘dream car’ should be SUV or crossover: in fact, every second respondent (55%) marked out the SUV segment among the others. At the same time, according to the experts, the number of off-road vehicle fans increased by 9 % during the year (from 46%). The number of lovers of all-wheel drive vehicles grew as well (from 55% up to 78%). This year, we asked respondents’ opinion about transmission. It turned out that 70% of car owners prefer a ‘dream car’ with an automatic transmission.

According to the experts, there are still a lot of petrol engine supporters (almost one in two), but their number decreased (53% vs. 70% last year). The result seems to be affected by the world fashion for hybrids and the growing popularity of vehicles running on alternative fuels. As for engine power, a year ago, Russian customers preferred 100 - 150 hp. engines (44%), and now, most respondents (35%) - every third - voted for more powerful (150 - 200 hp) power unit.

As for the body color, black was the leader in 2018, (most votes were given for it – 23%), but now 34% of respondents chose the ‘color doesn’t matter’ option. We believe that the Russians got a bit bored with the ‘classics’ colors of passenger cars and want something more exclusive for their ‘dream car’. How much could such vehicle cost? The most popular answer to this question - “1,500,000 rubles” - enabled the experts to draw a conclusion that the Russian customers have already got used to a new price level (the car cost increased considerably), and people assess the changed situation adequately: a year ago, the desired cost of the ‘Dream Car’ was 1,190,000 rubles.

This year, the respondents were asked about the options that the ‘dream car’ should definitely have. TOP-5 options include airbags (90% of respondents mentioned them), ABS (86%), heated mirrors (82%), climate control (80%), heated seats (79%).

* Respondents of the survey are over 9,500 active users of Auto Mail.ru portal, at the age of 18+ years old (90%of them own a vehicle at the time of the survey, 10% do not have their own car).