New Confused.Com Study Shows BMW Is The World’s Most Photographed Car Brand

New research from Confused.com has analysed the number of photos on Instagram of the world’s most popular car brands, and compared this to estimated global sales figures, to reveal the number of photos shared on social media for every car sold.

This allowed researchers to give each car model a ‘Car Instagrammability’ score out of 1,000 to reveal the vehicles people love to show off online.

The research revealed that, with over 60,000,000 hashtags and an estimated 2,028,000 global sales, BMW was the most photographed car brand in the world.

That’s the equivalent of 2,963 photos per car sold and a Car Instagrammability score of 296 out of 1,000 – making the German brand the make that drivers love to show off the most on Instagram.

Audi followed BMW in second position, claiming 28,179,228 hashtags on Instagram and almost 1,700,000 in estimated global sales, resulting in 1,665 photos online for each vehicle sold and an Instagrammability score of 166.

Mercedes, Subaru and Lexus made up the rest of the top five car brands with the most social media clout, each with a score of over 100 out of 1,000.

Three German brands made up the top three most photographed car makes (BMQ, Audi and Mercedes) and three Japanese brands also featured – Subaru (fourth), Lexus (fifth) and Honda (seventh).

Elon Musk’s electric vehicle brand Tesla was beaten by Dodge as the most photographed American car brands, but both made the top 10.

The only British brand to feature was Land Rover (eighth) and Volvo represented Sweden as the 10^th most photographed car brand in the world.

The top 10 most Instagrammed car brands in the world

The research also looked at the specific models that were taking Instagram by story and luxury German car manufacturer Audi landed itself in first place with the sleek Audi Q8 scoring 620 out of 1000. That means for every car sold, there are 620 photos of it posted to Instagram. In total, almost 225,000 photos of the Q8 have been shared on Instagram, and with just an estimated 36,157 cars sold, the research revealed it’s the most Instagrammed car in the world.  

In second place was the revered British manufacturer Land Rover, with its multi-award-winning Defender having 578 photos on Instagram for every car sold.

Following the Defender was the Range Rover Sport in third position and the Dodge Challenger in fourth place.

Audi dominated the top 20, with its models featuring five times in total. After the Q8, the Q3 was in seventh and the A7 is in eighth position. The Q7 came in at 12^th and the TT landed 15^th place.

BMW featured four times in the top 20 with the X4 in 13^th place, the i3 in 16^th, the X5 in 17^th and the 6 series in 19^th position.

The top 20 most Instagrammed car models in the world 

Alex Kindred, car insurance expert at Confused.com, said, “social media is a great way to share an exciting new purchase, though it’s important to share pictures online safely. With many of the most Instagrammed vehicles in our research being worth a significant amount of money, we should always avoid sharing any identifiable information in images, such as a number plate or location details.”

“Regardless of whether you post pictures of your car on social media or not, we know how upsetting it would be if it were to get damaged or stolen. We’d always encourage drivers to make sure their car is kept in a safe and secure location, locked up and not open to thieves. But ultimately taking out car insurance is the best way to make sure you are protected should you need to make a claim.”  

Sources: 

Sales data was sourced primarily from carsalesbase.com and goodcarbadcar.net, as well as from car-brand-specific press releases. The sales data includes the all-time sales of that particular model (i.e. to ensure that all iterations of a Ford Fiesta, for example, are accounted for).

Brands which Confused.com did not have global sales data for were left out from the research. Global sales data is correct as of May 2021. Instagram hashtag data for car models is correct as of 5 August 2021. Instagram hashtag data for car brands is correct as of 17 August 2021.