The most common car for millennials is ...

Millennial shoppers — defined by their 21st Century choosiness — differ from their predecessors in a lot of ways, particularly when it comes to buying cars.

The 25-to-39-year-old age group favor buying new cars, an AutoList.com survey found, and they are more likely to consider the environmental impacts of a car than members of Generation X, those people ranging in age from 40 to 54. Gen Xers, the study found, prefer price, reliability and brand when buying a car.

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The study also found that nearly half of millennials plan on keeping their cars for five years or less. Meanwhile, a third of Gen Xers plan to keep their car for 10 years or more.

That's good news for automakers, said Alex Klein, AutoList's vice president of data science. That's because millennials both want new cars, but should be in the market more often because they don't plan to keep them long.

The survey also broke down the two generations' favorite vehicles and found millennials prefer smaller, cheaper vehicles. For cars, millennials like the Honda Civic while members of Generation X prefer the slightly pricier Honda Accord. When it comes to trucks, millennials like the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and Generation X opts for the Ford F-150. The most common SUV for millennials is the Honda CR-V as opposed to the Gen X's Toyota RAV4.

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Companies already have reacted to millennial preferences on everything from food — the group trends more "all-natural" — to make-up and now vehicles. The millenial taste for more efficient cars with better technology, Klein says, means car makers need to keep up.

"That is a new way of thinking," he said. "That puts a lot of pressure on the automakers to innovative.”

Folow Sean Rossman on Twitter: @SeanRossman