In a country as vast as Brazil, where public transportation remains limited, especially in areas outside of the major urban centers, owning a vehicle has long been a preference and, for many, a necessity. However, is this trend beginning to shift?
OLX-Brazil, the country’s leading marketplace horizontal by traffic, recently conducted a survey with 300 individuals aged between 18-28 years to shed light on the attitudes of Generation Z (those born between 1995 and 2010) towards buying a vehicle.
The survey found that 60% of young Brazilians considered “freedom” and “mobility” to be the main reasons for buying a car. At the same time, 76% of them said they were willing to wait before making a purchase.
Financing seems to be the major challenge. 42% of respondents said they would only pay for a vehicle with cash, while 32% said they would be willing to partially finance the purchase and just 7% said they would consider fully financing it. The fact that interest rates in Brazil are among the highest in the world — the Brazilian Central Bank’s Selic reference rate currently stands as 13.75% — is likely a significant factor in this.
In addition, the price of cars in Brazil has soared over recent years, with the most affordable new vehicles now priced at more than $14,000 U.S. As a result, more Brazilians are opting for used or semi-new vehicles. According to the OLX-Brazil survey, 37.5% of respondents intend to buy a used vehicle (older than four years) and 27.5% a semi-new one (less than four years), with 35% favoring a new car.
OLX-Brazil provides a platform for buying and selling vehicles and is especially strong in used cars. It recently acquired Altimus, which provides dealers with software for listing management and invoicing, as well as a CRM and tools to help car sellers create sites and emails.
According to the company, it has more than one million active listings, 23 million monthly users in the autos category and sells an average of two cars per minute on its platform. Autos is its second strongest vertical in revenue after real estate.
