Hyundai's New Palisade SUV Appeals to Middle-Aged Men
21 January, 2019
Hyundai's big butch Palisade SUV that was unveiled late last year has found eager customers in men approaching their midlife crisis or with families to ferry about.
Hyundai Sunday released analysis of 20,506 sales of the Palisade in Korea during its first week of pre-orders.
A whopping 85.2 percent of buyers were men. SUVs generally appeal to men, who also bought 80.5 percent of Hyundai's midsize Santa Fe SUV and 79.1 percent for the large Veracruz, which the Palisade has now replaced.
Most of the male customers were 40 or above with 37 percent, followed by those in their 50s with 26.9 percent and their 30s with 21.2 percent. Only two percent were in their 20.
The main reason is that customers in that age range have more money at the peak of their working lives, and the biggest group of female buyers were also in their 40s with 33.6 percent and 50s with 26 percent.
The average age of a Palisade buyer was 47.5, suggesting that the car appeals to family men keen to show off status to others like them.
The Palisade has either seven or eight seats. The seven-seater costs about W290,000 more, but 76.4 percent of buyers opted for that version. A Hyundai staffer said, "It looks like customers prefer the roominess."
Few SUV drivers in that age range are likely to use more than four seats if the whole nuclear family piles in, but the status conferred by cars that take up half the road remains irresistible to many men in Asia and beyond.
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