Millennials driving women car sales in SA

Women are reshaping South Africa’s car market and make up almost 50% of new vehicle transactions – and Millennials (born between 1981 - 1996) are driving the shift and account for half of all sales to women.

Lightstone’s analysis of data sourced since the start of 2025 through its Signio system shows that Gen-X (those born between 1965 and 1980) makes up 31% of sales, followed by Gen-Z (1997-2012) at 14% and Baby Boomers (1946-1964) at just 5% (graph below).

Millennials account for half of female vehicle buyers

We get a clearer picture of the age bands dominating women buyers when we move from the generation timeline to the current age band of women buyers (graph below).

Women aged between 26 and 45 (a combination of some Gen-Z with Millennials) currently account for 60% of all sales made to women, whilst the set from 46 to 65 (Gen-X and a portion of Baby Boomers) is responsible for a further 33%.

If we break down the age groups, we find that women in their thirties make up the largest portion of this market at 33%. The 31 to 35 cluster is the largest sub-set with 17% of all vehicles bought by women falling into this age-group, and 16% of purchases were made by women between the ages of 36 and 40.

Current age band of women buyers

In terms of income bands, the vast majority – more than 80% - of women buyers earn between R10 000 and R50 000 a month. Just 3% are making less than R10 000/month, while another 3% are in the super-wealthy bracket earning more than R100 000/month.

Breaking these numbers down further, we see that 30% of all women buyers earn between R20 000 and R30 000, and 28% earn between R10 000 and R20 000.

Current income band of women buyers

New vehicles account for a larger share of purchases by women than they do among men

A larger share of women choose new vehicles than do men, with 40% of vehicles sold to women classified as new and 60% as used.

New vs Used vehicles - women buyer preference

While used cars still account for the majority of purchases among women, the contrast with male buyers is striking with only 27% of men currently choosing new vehicles, meaning new-car sales are almost evenly split between women and men at 49% and 51% respectively.

Women versus men share of New vehicle sales

This means the overall market split between purchases by women and men is around 39%–61% at present.