The Burrow
Sep 12, 2022
What’s the most exciting thing about passing your driving test? Picking your car, of course! Whilst for many of us, owning a Porsche or a BMW is the ultimate dream, unfortunately, budgets don’t often stretch that far for your first car.
With that in mind, we decided to find out which are the most loved (and most hated!) car brands amongst young drivers across the world. So, if you’re looking to buy your first car, you want to know if your current car is socially accepted worldwide, or are looking to find out more about the importance of car insurance for first-time drivers , carry on reading…
Coming in at number one, GMC is the most loved car brand, rising to the top in 7 countries, including the Czech Republic, Poland, and Spain. Interestingly, the GMC Terrain model has been cited as one of the safest options for teen drivers, as well as being on the more affordable side.1
In second and third place are Bugatti and Hennessey. Bugatti is the favourite in France, Slovakia and Sweden, amongst other countries, whereas Hennessey has come top in Canada, Macedonia, and Turkey. For Australians, Lamborghini is the most loved car brand – a brand no other country mentioned.
Other special mentions go to the UK and Ireland, who chose Dodge (the famous car used in the Fast and Furious franchise), and Jeep respectively – again, the only country to have it down as their most loved.
Interestingly, despite the USA loving huge pick-up trucks, their favourite car brand is actually a compact British classic: the MINI!
There were several brands that weren’t named as favourites in any country, including Citroen and SEAT, as well as some more expensive brands including Tesla and Mercedes-Benz.
General Motors has the world divided, with 7 countries also naming it as their least favourite model – including Australia, the UK, and Denmark.
Coming in second-last place is Peugeot, with Austria, Hungary, and Iceland naming it as their least favourite car brand, amongst other countries. This is a bit surprising, considering that Peugeots often score well in terms of affordability, reliability, and fuel prices2 – so one might assume it could make a relatively good first car.
Dodge was another brand that didn’t fare too well, coming in as the least favourite in five countries, including Ireland, Malta, and Georgia.
In Canada, Skoda was voted the least favourite, whereas for the USA, it was SEAT.
With all that being said, there were also a lot of cars that didn’t receive any negative sentiment whatsoever, including Ferrari, Hyundai, Mazda, and Porsche.
Commenting on the research, Compare the Market’s car insurance expert Stephen Zeller, says: “For many young drivers, buying a car can be a key milestone in their life, but with so many factors to consider it’s smart to avoid incurring larger costs in the long run. Many young people opt for smaller vehicles, which in some cases can be cheaper to insure, and are also perfect for shorter commutes such as to college or work. They might also look ‘sportier’. Smaller cars are often more familiar too, as many people learn to drive in similar size vehicles.
“As new drivers, young people are also often hit by higher car insurance costs. However, putting time in to research what influences these costs can help young people bring down their insurance premiums. We hope our research about preferred brands and models helps young people narrow down their choice, from the online word-of-mouth of their peers. However, when it comes to first cars for young people, we probably wouldn’t suggest the Hennessey Ford GT from a cost to insure perspective!”
If you’ve recently passed your test, then congratulations! There’s no better feeling than being able to grab a few of your friends and head on a long drive – whether your destination is the beach, or the countryside.
However, one thing you must do as soon as you’ve bought your new car, is sort out your insurance. If you’re a new driver, your on-road experience could be limited so it’s best to ensure you’re covered in case the worst happens behind the wheel. To search for a range of options that could suit your individual needs, take a look at our free car insurance comparison tool.
To determine the car brands with the most positive and negative sentiment per country, we used the Linkfluence sentiment tool that crawls data on mentions across the internet from the past 12 months, for people aged 18-24.
From them, we picked out the brands with the largest percentage of positive and negative sentiment, to determine which car brands young people talk about the most positively, and which ones they might avoid, or feel the most negative about across Europe, America, Canada and Australia.
Data is accurate as of 6-18/7/2022.