Millennials are incredibly generous gift givers, says eBay Motors study

By Lulu Chang November 13, 2016

ebay motors iphone app car sales — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Gift-giving season is fast approaching, and while you may be deciding between a gift card and a spatula for some of your friends and family members, it looks like Americans as a whole tend to be a bit more, well, extravagant in their presents. According to a new study from eBay Motors, nearly a third of American adults have either gifted a vehicle to themselves or to someone else. As per the Holiday Automotive Gifting Survey, cars are a rather popular gift for a celebration, recognition of a major life milestone, or just the holidays as a whole. And it would appear that eBay Motors is a major marketplace for those looking to make a purchase on someone else’s behalf.

“At eBay, consumer choice and selection are among our top priorities,” said Jay Hanson, eBay’s vice president of North America, merchandising of hard goods. “Having insight into consumers’ preferences and shopping behaviors, including what type of vehicle they’d like to gift themselves or someone else during the holidays, is important for us to leverage as we continue to evolve the online automotive retail experience.”

As the generation that is arguably the most comfortable with online shopping, eBay’s study found that millennials are actually the most generous when it comes to vehicle gifting. But don’t worry — we don’t have a ton of teenagers buying cars for one another. Rather, eBay noted, 75 percent of millennial car-gifters are in their late 20’s or early 30’s. And the most generous of all? That would appear to be doting wives, a quarter of whom have gifted cars to their husbands either for the holidays or in celebration of a milestone.

What kind of cars are we gifting? According to eBay, Ford is the most considered brand among millennials (particularly the Mustang, which is the most wanted “dream car” across generations), whereas Nissan is the most considered brand among Gen-Xers, and Toyota is the most considered brand among Baby Boomers.

So start making your wish lists, friends. And dream big. You never know what generous soul may be looking on eBay Motors on your behalf.

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