How do you do, fellow youngsters?
Though many younger individuals have private finance obstacles like scholar loans, bank cards, and private mortgage debt, automakers make a valiant effort to make themselves marketable to the all-valuable youth market, whether or not by social media or different types of intricate focused promoting and model consciousness campaigns.
Consideration to the younger buyer is even necessary for manufacturers that appear unattainable to most individuals. In a March 2025 interview with CNBC, Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna mentioned that 40% of its new purchasers are “beneath 40 years previous,” an enormous 10% soar contemplating that simply 30% of Ferrari patrons had been beneath 40 in 2023.
Regardless of its premium picture and rock-solid repute for high quality and dependability, which it shares with Toyota, a brand new report exhibits that Lexus’s clean-cut repute for relentlessly pursuing perfection can solely go to date within the eyes of the shopping for public, particularly in an age the place picture is all the things.
Oh Lord, will not you purchase me a [Lexus?]
In line with a new report printed by S&P World Mobility, a number of demographic knowledge factors had been used to match Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz patrons. The report revealed that the Japanese model has some stark demographic variations in terms of the type of patrons it attracts over its German counterparts.
Essentially the most putting knowledge level is that, in contrast to Beemer or Benz, latest Lexus house owners are usually type of previous—57.6 years on common, to be precise. The examine, which makes use of knowledge collected from October 2024 to January 2025, exhibits that the typical luxurious automotive purchaser is 54 years previous, the typical age of a Mercedes purchaser is 55.7 years previous, and BMW prospects hover across the common age of 54.3 years previous.
The examine additionally finds that the typical Lexus purchaser tends to earn rather less in comparison with different big-name luxurious manufacturers like Mercedes and BMW. About 46.8% of Lexus patrons have a family revenue of lower than $150,000, whereas simply 35.2% of BMW patrons and 40.3% of Mercedes patrons had been in the identical revenue bracket. About 41.1% of luxurious patrons usually have a family revenue of lower than $150,000.
The revenue hole was additional unfurled when S&P regarded into the finance knowledge behind the manufacturers. Whereas the typical MSRP of BMW and Mercedes was greater than the typical luxurious model automotive ($63,782) at $69,963 and $68,873, respectively, the typical Lexus has an MSRP of $52,005. Moreover, Lexus prospects are inclined to have a decrease month-to-month fee, as they need to fork over simply $866, greater than $140 and $240 lower than the typical BMW and Mercedes-Benz, respectively.
BMW
Nonetheless, extra apparently, S&P discovered that extra girls purchased Lexus autos than males within the interval wherein they collected knowledge. They discovered that fifty.4% of Lexus patrons had been girls, regardless of making up simply 40.6% of luxurious patrons on common. In distinction, 38.7% of BMW patrons and simply 43.9% of Benz patrons had been girls. S&P attributes Lexus’s greater feminine combine to sturdy gross sales of the RX, a crossover that it says “appeals extra to girls than conventional body-on-frame SUVs.” Moreover, they denote that the decrease common age of Benz and BMW drivers actively displays the automakers’ emphasis on efficiency, sportiness, and racing, qualities that youthful males are inclined to gravitate towards.
Ultimate ideas
To not knock their recreation, however upon seeing this knowledge from S&P, I instantly thought of this video from a TikTok creator named Remy Zee (@remyzee). The video depicts him as a middle-aged East Asian suburban dad who exhibits off his new Lexus RX350 as an improve to the household automotive after touchdown a promotion in an unnamed place at an unnamed job. As somebody who has lived within the neighborhood of a North Jersey Asian enclave, I can title at the very least three individuals whose mother and father upgraded their household automobiles to an RX350 or Acura MDX.
As a lot as this concept can’t be utilized to automobiles, I really feel that the habits of Lexus patrons versus the discretionary conduct of BMW or Benz patrons are the separation of shopping for a automotive for the qualities of it being a dependable, reliable mode of transportation relatively than shopping for it just because it is a BMW or Benz. Positive, Lexus is far more costly than Toyota, however this “posh” Toyota remains to be the quantity 3 general model and quantity 2 luxurious model, per Client Reviews.
Lexus advert with 100 Thieves Content material Creators Valkyrae, Yassuo, Fuslie and Allow Lexus
However we should not discredit Lexus for making a dependable, reliable automotive uncool. In any case, their model was constructed on “The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection,” they usually promote on that “boring and uncool” issue, whether or not they enchantment to everybody or not. Final yr, Lexus bought 345,669 automobiles within the U.S., and 118,636 of them had been RXs. By comparability, of the 371,346 automobiles BMW bought final yr, simply 72,348 had been X5s.
It isn’t like Lexus is not attempting to achieve the youth. In 2021, the automaker started its partnership with the Los Angeles-based esports and gaming group and life-style model 100 Thieves. The partnership enlisted the hyper-popular gaming stay streamers Fuslie and Valkyrae as model ambassadors, exposing Lexus and its autos to a a lot youthful viewers. Whether or not that may positively change the aforementioned stats stays to be seen.
