What’s the most stereotypical Seattle car? The answer is almost a no-brainer: Subaru.
The outdoorsy Japanese car, beloved by hikers and campers, has enjoyed a long run as Seattle’s favorite ride.
In fact, way back in 2015, I wrote a column that asked “Does everyone in Seattle drive a Subaru?” While the answer was obviously “no,” Nielsen market research data showed the make was indeed more popular here than just about anywhere.
For years, the data showed the Subaru ownership rate in Seattle was the most disproportionately high of any make of car when compared with the ownership rate nationally.
Not anymore. Subaru has fallen to second place. The new No. 1 is Tesla, the American manufacturer of high-tech electric vehicles.
To be clear, there are far fewer Tesla households than Subaru households in Seattle, but the percentage of households that had a Tesla was disproportionately higher when comparing local ownership rates with national averages.
In the latest Nielsen data, Subaru ownership among Seattle-area households was 115% higher than the national average. You wouldn’t think any other make of car could top that, but Tesla did. The ownership rates of Teslas among Seattle-area households was 130% higher than the U.S. average.
The data is based on surveys conducted from January 2023 to April 2024. More than 175,000 people were surveyed across 83 market areas, including nearly 3,500 in the Seattle market, which covers most of Western Washington.
Here’s a closer look at the numbers.
In the Seattle market area, a projected 311,000 households had at least one Subaru. That pencils out to 16.8% of the 1.86 million households that had at least one vehicle. The nationwide Subaru ownership rate was just 7.8% of households.
A projected 66,700 Seattle-area households had at least one Tesla, which represented 3.6% of local households. The national average was only 1.6%.
Interestingly, Seattle didn’t rank No. 1 for either Subarus or Teslas, although we were near the top for both.
In Spokane, 20% of households had a Subaru, making it the top market, followed by two smaller areas in the Northeast: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pa., and Hartford/New Haven, Conn. Seattle ranked fourth, and Portland rounded out the top five.
The top markets for Tesla, which is often considered a luxury vehicle, were all very expensive places. Honolulu was No. 1, with Teslas owned or leased by 4.2% of households. San Francisco was next, with Seattle in third place, followed by Portland and Denver.
Tesla is famously owned by billionaire Elon Musk, who was once admired by liberals for helping to popularize the electric vehicle. But in the last few years — in particular since he purchased the social media platform Twitter (now X) in October 2022 — Musk has become something of a villain among the left. He’s often expressed conservative views and backed Donald Trump’s successful presidential bid last year.
And that’s put some Tesla owners in the Seattle area, where most people tend to vote Democrat, in an awkward position, especially since the car is so closely associated with Musk himself.
Even so, it doesn’t seem to have hurt Tesla ownership rates here — or if it has, it’s too soon to be reflected in the data. And there’s been a significant increase in Tesla households in the Seattle market over the past few years. For example, in Nielsen surveys conducted from December 2020 to April 2022, only around 22,400 Seattle-area households owned a Tesla.
Tesla and Subaru were not the only auto manufacturers significantly overrepresented in Seattle. Mini ownership in this area was 108% higher than average, with Volkswagen 75% higher and Audi 58% higher.
The most underrepresented makes in the Seattle market were Lincoln and Buick, both with ownership rates less than half the national average.
In terms of raw numbers, the No. 1 car in the Seattle market was Toyota, owned or leased by a projected 587,000 households — that’s 31.6% of households among those with at least one vehicle.
That was a bit above average. Nationally, 27.4% of households had a Toyota.
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.