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America's Love of Cars Is On Instagram, Here Are The Most Popular Ones

America might not be the World’s Biggest Auto Market these days, but it has been for most of the existence of the automobile.
Car delivery posted on Instagram with #newcar 11 photos
Photo: Instagram photo by @hypercarszene
Instagram's #NewCar hashtag resultsMost Popular #NewCar - BrandsMost “Liked” BrandsMost Popular #NewCars by StateThe Top States Where #NewCar Is Popular On InstagramMost Popular #NewCar - BrandsMost “Liked” BrandsMost Popular #NewCars by StateThe Top States Where #NewCar Is Popular On InstagramThe Least Popular #NewCar
This love of cars was born out of the need for transportation, but has evolved into a statement, and now it lives as something in between. Some people love cars and everything about them, others see automobiles as appliances.

In the world of social media, you are instantly connected with more people than you could have ever met in real life, and a keen observer can make some interesting notes.

This is the case of Auto Nation, who made a study to find out what cars are the most posted on Instagram with the hashtag #NewCar. They went through 100,000 Instagram images to determine the brands of the vehicles displayed, and their Geotagged locations of the same hashtag were used to find out where the pictures were taken.

Google’s Cloud Vision API helped, says Auto Nation. Their methodology involved a random selection of 100,000 #NewCar posts, so the results may not refer to all-new vehicles, but to cars that are new to the poster, as in second-hand cars that have just been acquired.

Most Popular #NewCar - Brands

Most Popular #NewCar \- Brands
Photo: Auto Nation
The study shows that BMW is the most popular automaker when it comes to Instagram posts that contain the hashtag #newcar. It is not an astonishment, as the German premium brand makes vehicles that almost anyone would want to show off, especially when they just bought or leased a new one.

The second-most popular name is also German and premium, in the form of Mercedes-Benz. Just like BMW, the Stuttgart automaker builds vehicles that make people take pride in owning them. The third-best ranked brand is Jeep, which accounts for half of the posts made regarding the #newcar hashtag.

The fascination of the off-road brand from America is evident, and it makes sense for Jeep to be big in the USA on Instagram, as well as in real life.

The next three brands are Toyota, Chevrolet, and Nissan, which are more affordable than the first three, but people still praise their new acquisitions. After Nissan comes Audi, which tops Honda, Mazda, and Volkswagen in the top 10 most popular #newcar posts on Instagram.

The Least Popular #NewCar

The Least Popular #NewCar
Photo: Crop from Auto Nation's analysis
The most surprising discovery is that Tesla owners do not post pictures on Instagram with their vehicles, or at least they do not do it with the #NewCar hashtag.

The American automaker specialized in electric vehicles is the least present brand in this chart. The second-least favorite company on Instagram with this hashtag is Buick, followed by Chrysler in third.

Surprisingly, Range Rover comes in as the fourth least-popular #NewCar brand posted, followed by Mitsubishi, Volvo, Infiniti, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Subaru, and Rolls-Royce.

As you can observe, there are several exclusive brands in the chart, but their owners are probably not as many as those that buy new BMW cars and post pictures of them with the #NewCar hashtag. There is also a possibility that the pictures of those models were published with other hashtags.

The middle of the rating has brands like Ferrari, Lexus, Acura, Porsche, Maserati, Hyundai, Ford, and Fiat. The Italian brand from Torino is the most affordable of the lot, and we believe most posts with the #NewCar hashtag featured the 500 model in them.

As we explained above, owners of exclusive models life those built by Ferrari, Maserati, and Porsche probably were not as many as those that published pictures of new BMWs with the same hashtag.

Most Popular #NewCars by State

Most Popular #NewCars by State
Photo: Auto Nation
While BMW was the most popular brand when it came to counting the number of posts that included its products and the #NewCar hashtag, the German premium brand was not the most popular #NewCar on an American level. The brand from Munich only claimed five state victories, all of them in the Northeast.

Meanwhile, the second-most popular #NewCar, Mercedes-Benz, was dominant in 11 states, which makes it the most popular foreign brand in this category.

Toyota scored a victory in seven states, while Dodge, Honda, Subaru, Nissan, Lamborghini, and Volkswagen were each the most popular in one state. Ford was popular in two states, but the most popular #NewCar brand in the most states was Jeep, which collected 17 victories.

Among the impressive wins is Subaru, which claimed victory in Alaska, and Lamborghini, which was number one in North Carolina. The latter is surrounded by states where Mercedes-Benz was more popular than others. Jeep seems to win on an overall level if you look at the map (it is in the photo gallery).

Most “Liked” Brands

Most “Liked” Brands
Photo: Auto Nation
Since the states where certain brands were most popular have been established, and the most popular brand posted with the #NewCar hashtag is determined, it is time to find out what are the cars that are most likely to get you more likes.

Evidently, picture composition matters, but some brands will win over others because of the design of their models, as well as overall popularity.

By far, the most popular brand on Instagram’s #NewCar hashtag is Lamborghini. Posts with models from this brand got an average of 890 “likes.”

The second-most popular was Aston Martin, with 294 “likes” on average. Maserati and Ferrari are close, with 258, and 256 likes on average, respectively.

Mercedes-Benz comes fifth, with 123 likes on average, just ahead of Porsche, which has 116 likes on average for the #NewCar posts studied. BMW, Audi, Infiniti, and Lexus complete the Top 10 of this category.

We presume that more affordable models could get more likes than those given to mainstream brands, but only with expert photographers using phones to post on Instagram. In theory, take a good picture and you will get more likes.

The Top States Where #NewCar Is Popular On Instagram

The Top States Where #NewCar Is Popular On Instagram
Photo: Auto Nation
Wyoming is the U.S. state where Instagram’s #NewCar hashtag is most common. Vermont comes in second, with Alaska third. Delaware and Montana complete the top five.

Interestingly, the number of posts regarding the purchase of a new car does not correlate with The US Department of Transportation’s statistics. Well, not entirely.

Alaska, for example, is the last state for car registrations, but the third in the popularity ranking of #NewCar. Delaware is the fourth spot concerning the number of posts with the same hashtag, but is second in the USA for car registrations.

Meanwhile, Vermont is second in the number of posts that refer to the purchase of a new car, but 19th in the number of vehicle registrations. Wyoming is number one, as we mentioned above, when it comes to posts, but only 21st when it comes to IRL vehicle registrations.

Montana, on the other hand, is the last in the top five regarding posts, but second in U.S. filings.
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About the author: Sebastian Toma
Sebastian Toma profile photo

Sebastian's love for cars began at a young age. Little did he know that a career would emerge from this passion (and that it would not, sadly, involve being a professional racecar driver). In over fourteen years, he got behind the wheel of several hundred vehicles and in the offices of the most important car publications in his homeland.
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