Porsche, Domestic Brands Attracting Female Shoppers, Edmunds.com Reports

SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Porsche made serious market share gains during the past year among female shoppers, an analysis by Edmunds.com revealed. The car-shopping site also found that female shoppers are making up a larger customer base for some of the top domestic auto brands.

From January through August 2011, 23 percent of Porsche buyers were female, compared to 19 percent during the year-ago period. The growth accounts for a 21.1 percent proportional change on a year-over-year basis.

The analysis also found that eight of the 10 car brands with the fastest growing female market shares were domestic automakers, according to Edmunds.com. Among those domestic brands, Buick made the largest market share gains among women, increasing the proportion by 8.6 percent year over year.

Following behind Buick was Dodge with an increase of 7.4 percent and Chevrolet with an increase of 6.5 percent. Infiniti made the Top 10 also with a 6.1 increase year over year. Overall, 39 percent of all new cars in the United States have been registered by women this year, mostly flat compared to last year.

“One thing that these 10 brands have in common is that their shares of female buyers all fall below the industry average of 39 percent,” said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds.com senior analyst. “It’s smart for these brands to develop new and refreshed products that have a stronger appeal with women so that they don’t miss out on an important part of the market.”

Foreign makes dominated the list of the largest decreases in female market share, the analysts also found. MINI has seen its market share of females shift from 48 percent in the first eight months of 2010 to 46 percent during the same period in 2011. Fellow European competitors Audi (-2.9 percent), Volvo (-2.3 percent) and Volkswagen (-2.3 percent) are next on the list, followed by Korean brand Hyundai (-2.3 percent).

To perform this study, Edmunds.com analysts examined new-car registration data provided by Polk for the periods January 2010-August 2010 and January 2011-August 2011. Only brands selling a minimum of 1,500 vehicles to females nationwide during each time period were considered for the analysis.

For more information, visit http://www.autoobserver.com/car-data-center/.

Source: Polk