In a target lead-vehicle designating apparatus, a vehicle tracking ECU compares surrounding vehicle information acquired through an inter-vehicle communication unit and vehicle information on preceding vehicles detected by a radar device to designate a target lead-vehicle. The communicated speed of the other vehicles and the detected speed of the preceding vehicles are compared in terms of velocity component in the travel direction of a host vehicle to identify the target lead-vehicle. Accordingly, the target lead-vehicle may be accurately identified even if the target lead-vehicle is close to other vehicles.