These Are America's Most Popular Cars (By Generation)
This chart, via Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao, ranks America’s most popular cars amongst different generations. Data was sourced from Insurify, as of August 2024.
To create this ranking Insurify analyzed car ownership rates by brand and model across different generations, based on 4.5 million customer applications between 2023 and 2024.
They followed the Pew Research Center’s definition to categorize the generations:
Baby Boomers: 1946–1964
Generation X: 1965–1980
Millennials: 1981–1996
Generation Z: 1997–2012
Rankings are based on a car model having the highest rate of ownership in a generation versus the national average for that model. Please visit the source (linked above) for full details on their methodology.
America’s Favorite Cars by Age Groups
The Ford F-series pickup truck is the most popular vehicle for Baby Boomers and Gen X.
However, for Millennials, the Ford pickup ranks sixth by ownership, and it doesn’t appear in Gen Z’s top choices at all.
Trucks in general do better with older generations, as evidenced also by the Chevrolet Silverado’s presence. It’s ranked fifth for Baby Boomers and Gen X, 10th for Millennials, and once again not in the top choices for Gen Z.
Older generations also seem to like—and can probably afford—bigger cars. Baby Boomers and Gen X both have SUVs in their top 10 (Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, Nissan Rogue, and the Chevrolet Equinox) while Millennials and Gen Z have none.
Across all generations, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord consistently rank in the top five. Interestingly both car brands rank in the top five for reliability.
These are about car models, how do generations feel about brands? Check out America’s Top Car Brands, by Generation. Spoiler: Hyundai ranks 6th across all four.