People prefer SUVs rather than Sedans?

For many decades, the traditional four-door sedan has dominated the global roadways, but the gap has narrowed for years in the West.

Online classified Carmudi has analyzed its data globally based on its thousands of listings in the last quarter to understand if the same trend will be seen globally and in Philippines.

In the US, 36.5-percent of the new vehicle in the market are using SUVs.  In its data, statistics shows that sales of SUVs outside North America will further increase by 40-percent in the next four years, particularly in Asia. It also revealed that car buyers in Asia browsed most for sedans, particularly in Myanmar (59-percent), Sri Lanka (57-percent), Bangladesh (51-percent), Pakistan (50-percent), and Indonesia (38-percent).

While it is unlikely that motorists in Asia will completely turn their backs on sedans, the slow but apparent shift towards SUVs is taking place, notably in the Philippines, where 25-percent of Carmudi visitors are browsing for SUVs, compared with 19-percent of users browsing for sedans.

Meanwhile, sedans are also very popular in Africa, particularly in Nigeria where 55-percent of searchers are browsing for them, the highest in the region. Things look slightly different in Ghana, where 41-percent of searchers are browsing for SUVs compared to the 35-percent that are browsing for sedans.

In the Middle East, 39-percent of car buyers particularly UAE browsed sedans, compared to 33-percent of users who browsed large-size vehicles such as the estate, crossover, SUV and vans or minibuses. In Qatar, almost 40-percent of car buyers browsed for sedans, while 37-percent browsed for large-size vehicles. Saudi Arabia is leading the SUV charge with 37-percent of users browsing for SUVs, compared to 30-percent interested in sedans.

Subir Lohani, managing director of Carmudi Philippines, said, “In the Philippines, SUVs remained to be the first choice of Filipino motorists. We’ve seen the growth in the first quarter reaching15-percent increase in the industry report by CAMPI due to the growing demand of market.”

“Aside from the flexi-payment scheme offered by banks to loan a vehicle, Filipinos nowadays are looking for a huge vehicle that can be useful-be in their personal use or business,” adds Lohani.