RICHMOND, Va. -

With all this focus on marketing to millennials, what about some of your older customers — perhaps the ones that have hit that proverbial bump in the road known as the “midlife crisis”?

CarMax research shows these customers may not be on the lookout for the stereotypical red convertible that goes along with passing the 50-year mark.

CarMax Inc. published a survey on midlife crisis car trends on Tuesday that instead shows sedans and SUVs are gaining in popularity for this particular set of the public.

According to the survey, 20 percent of “midlife crisis buyers” would still go for a sports car first, but less flashy models are gaining steam. Seventeen percent of responders said they would purchase an SUV, and 15 percent would go for a sedan.

The importance of the so-called midlife crisis car seems to vary with gender, though. First off, 30 percent of men would be very or somewhat likely to buy a car associated with a midlife crisis, while 21 percent of women said the same.

And for men, 24 percent would still be in the market for a sports car at this point in their lives, while women's top choice (19 percent) are SUVs.

Not surprisingly, though, when asked about a specific make and model, the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Corvette still reign as the overall go-to vehicles for those trying to refresh their image.

But the color preference may be changing, as CarMax points out no matter what 1980s movies may have shown us, “today’s midlife crisis car doesn’t have to be red.”

In fact, according to the survey, fielded by Ipsos with a sample of 1,005 adults, the most popular color for respondents’ hypothetical midlife crisis car was black (20 percent).

Silvery/gray was up next with 19 percent of the vote, followed by blue and red, both with 17-percent shares. Yellow wrapped up the list with just 2 percent.

Interestingly, the survey even shows which area of the U.S. has the most consumers potentially in the market for their “midlife crisis ride.”

According to the survey, residents of the South are most likely to go that route, with more than 30 percent of respondents indicating that they were very or somewhat likely to buy a vehicle to mark a midlife crisis.  

Midwesterners were the least likely to spring for a midlife crisis car overall, according to CarMax, with almost 80 percent of respondents saying that they were not very likely or not at all likely to buy one.

For more information, visit: https://www.carmax.com/research/articles/are-you-in-the-market-for-a-midlife-crisis-car.