Europe is a very diverse continent and that is obvious in many areas, including car-buying trends. Every country has its own preferences when it comes to cars and Ford has compiled a list of the differences between 22 European nations based on a study titled Ford Car Buying Trends 2014.
The survey reveals some surprising facts. For instance, residents of Europe’s hottest countries such as Spain, Greece and Italy are among the least likely to buy a new car with a sunroof. Surprisingly, buyers in cold Norway were the most likely to choose a new Ford with a…sunroof (15 percent) just ahead of France (11 percent) and Germany (10 percent).
In terms of color preferences, white surpassed black last year as the most popular car color across Europe, according to an analysis of more than 500,000 Ford vehicle purchases. 23 percent of new Ford cars were white, followed by black (20 percent) and grey (17 percent). One of these three top colors was the top choice for every single country except Ireland, Poland and Romania, where silver – the fourth most popular color in Europe (14 percent) – was the preferred option.
When it comes to body styles, the five-door hatchback is the most popular, with half of Ford buyers choosing it. Approximately 35 percent of Europeans prefer wagons and 15 percent opt for sedans. Petrol cars were chosen by 58 percent of Ford’s European customers, with 41 percent going for diesel vehicles and less than 1 percent opting for vehicles powered by alternative fuels. The Russians prefer petrol engines the most (97 percent), while the Turks are the biggest diesel fans (64 percent).
Finally, the vast majority of Ford’s European customers chose a manual gearbox (85 percent), with the highest percentage found in the Netherlands (96 percent). Russia is the European market where automatic gearboxes are most popular (48 percent).
By Dan Mihalascu
VIDEO