James Warren
GERMAN luxury car brand Audi has been named as Spain’s most popular manufacturer for first time drivers according to a new study by leading insurance search engine comparethemarket.com.
A step up from inheriting your dad’s five year old Ford Fiesta, Spain’s teens are searching for a little more class for their first time on the road.
Social media listening data provided by Linkfluence and accessed by comparethemarket.com showed that the German giant took up 15.1% of the total social media mentions when it came to discussing first time purchases.
Audi pips Spanish stalwart Seat to the top spot, with Spain’s largest car manufacturer amassing just 8% of the mentions.
Just behind in third place is Ford with 7.9%, followed by Renault and Peugeot with 7.2% and 7% respectively.
Some of Spain’s new drivers also showed to have lofty ambitions for their first set of wheels, with Porsche and Ferrari making the top ten.
Seat still maintain the top spot when it comes to new car registrations across the board however as their Leon model continues to be Spain’s most popular model.
According to data from Statista, the Seat Leon registered 35,849 purchases during 2019.
Seat’s Ibiza and their small family SUV, the Arona also placed highly, keeping the Spanish brand firmly in the marketplace.
Second most popular with 33,882 registrations was the Romanian Dacia Sandero, a small brand that has been making waves across Europe and outselling many established brands across Spain for the past five years.
Nissan’s Qashqai came third with a total of 30,163 purchases, ahead of the French duo of the Renault Megane and the Clio with 25,555 a piece.
Despite VW Groups success with the Leon, its own brand, as well as other German brands Mercedes and BMW did not place highly as figures showed that due to their high price tags, many average Spanish motorists are turning to more economical models.
Highest placed German model was VW’s Golf with 24,335 registrations placing it eighth.
Statistics also showed that in the past three years, diesel cars have taken a massive downturn in sales with the arrival of more and more electric and hybrid models, plus stricter EU CO2 guidelines, traditional diesel engines are slowly leaving the market for greener alternatives.
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