CARY, N.C. -

Fifty percent of millennials plan to own each of their vehicles for less than five years, according to Autolist.com, and rather than investing in rental cars, millennials are buying cars — and they’re buying more used than new, says Crowdtap.

The two recent studies examined millennial vehicle purchasing and driving trends.

Cost and environmental efficiency seem to matter the most to millennial consumers.

These trends will have an imminent impact on used-car market dynamics, says Autolist.

Last week, the automotive buyer intelligence firm Autolist.com and marketing platform Crowdtap released independent reports that unveil vital information that can help auto retailers connect with millennial consumers this year and in the future.

Millennials living in both urban and suburban areas are purchasing vehicles and mostly used ones, according to Crowdtap’s report titled Millennials Behind the Wheel. Crowdtap polled over 200 male and female millennials in November living in dense urban cities or more sprawling suburban areas.

Of millennial car owners, 86 percent bought cars, compared to a combined 14 percent who leased or rented a vehicle, said the study.

Used-car sales under $25,000 made up 65.9 percent of millennial car owners.

Autolist’s analysis — What Drives Millennials? — delves deeper into millennials’ preference for new versus used vehicles and compared them to those of Generation X. Autolist dispensed its survey to 3,383 vehicle owners nationwide during fourth quarter. It considers Gen Xers those drivers aged 40 to 54 and millennials ages 25 to 39.

Interestingly, their findings show that compared to Gen Xers, millennials actually desire to buy new cars more — 6.2 percent more.

“If this generation is really interested in sort of upping the number of new cars that they’re going to be buying, this is really powerful news,” Alex Klein, vice president of data science at Autolist.com, said in a phone interview. 

“There’s already been anecdotal and some hard data around the rise of leasing and how much more leasing is going on.”

Millennials also plan to own their vehicles longer than Gen Xers, according to the study.

Klein added, “The desire to own vehicles for a shorter amount of time means there’s going to be more vehicle churn; they’re going to be going through more vehicles in their lifetime, but also by the same token, they also have more of a preference for buying new cars.”

He said this trend signals a boom for OEMs who might be worried about the decline in new-car sales, along with the advent of automation and car sharing services.

Crowdtap’s analysis took a look at millennial vehicle ownership as well, and found that 76 percent of current car owners plan to own between one and six cars in their lifetime.

Additionally, while Gen Xer decisions are driven more by vehicle price and reliability during the car-buying process, millennials tend to think more about the environmental impact of their choice, according to Autolist.com.

Millennials consider the holistic environmental impact of their vehicles 5.1 percent more than Gen Xers.