Where Are Car Shoppers Hot for Luxury?

CARS.COM — Even though the amount of commercials on TV may suggest otherwise, luxury vehicles make up a fairly small portion of the overall new-car market. According to Autodata Corp., luxury vehicles have accounted for just 11.5 percent of new vehicle sales through August 2016. However, according to Cars.com data, interest in the segment is much higher: Listings of luxury vehicles are viewed more than twice as many times on average as non-luxury vehicles. And if we look at our new and used inventory over the past 12 months, luxury cars make up 14 percent of vehicles for sale. Which states are the most luxury-car hungry?

Related: How Hyundai Plans to Sell Shoppers on its Genesis Brand

We ranked each of the 50 states on a mix of two factors: the ratio of luxury vehicles in its inventory and statewide interest in luxury vehicles measured by views of luxury vehicle listings. Those states with high ratios and interest scores are at the top of our index, while states with less vehicles and less interest sit at the bottom.

We defined luxury vehicles as belonging to the following brands: Acura, Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Bugatti, Cadillac, Ferrari, Infiniti, Jaguar, Lamborghini, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, Tesla and Volvo.

Using data collected over the past 12 months, the five states that scored the highest were:

1. New Jersey

2. Illinois

3. Virginia

4. Connecticut

5. California

New Jersey and Illinois were head and shoulders above the rest but for different reasons. New Jersey had a very high ratio of luxury inventory (second overall behind California), with more than 20 percent of listings in that state being luxury vehicles. In Illinois, there weren’t quite as many listings, but there was a ton of interest, with those vehicles attracting 33 percent more views than the third-placed state (Virginia).

At the bottom of the list are three states that had the lowest scores by a fair margin, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. In each of those states, luxury listings were still viewed about twice as many times as non-luxury listings, but their share of luxury inventory was very low — less than 5 percent of the listings in each state were luxury brands.

We were also curious to see that of the luxury brands, which are most popular? To get this information, we measured on a views-per-listing basis of both new and used cars. To keep things tidy, we eliminated the exotic brands and stuck with 12 of the mainstream luxury brands. Porsche dominated the proceedings, sweeping up 43 states, followed by Jaguar with six and Land Rover with one. Porsche listings garnered more than double the views per listing on a national level of BMW, which is currently the top-selling luxury brand in terms of volume.

Porsche’s win jibes with its perception — the brand’s vehicles remain aspirational even though they don’t move in large volume, and Porsche has a robust ownership community which keeps interest in older vehicles as well.