Dealership MarketingIndustry News & Trends

Buying A Car an Infographic and Some Important Stats

Jeff Kershner
Posted onFeb 27, 2013 at 10:46 PM
Updated onUpdated on Feb 27, 2013 at 6:47 PM

 

According to a recent study by Lab42, the top four frustrations in the vehicle purchasing process are, dealing with salespeople, finding the right vehicle, the time spent on the process and understanding finance.

Four out of four of these frustrations sit at your dealership.

  1. Spending time on the process
    What processes does your dealership have in place to prevent these four frustrations?
  2. Dealing with Sales People
    How do your salespeople treat potential customers with such respect and create that lasting relationship that will keep them in the service lane year after year – and coming back to them for their next vehicle purchase?
  3. Finding the right car
    What does your website do to lower the time spent researching their next vehicle?
  4. Understanding Financing
    Are you further complicating finance due to your own incentives and priorities?

Additional stats include:

  • 52% Don’t know what make or model they intend to buy before arriving at the dealership.
  • 73% wish there was one fixed price for each car so there was no negotiation needed – really?
  • 48% of buyers are spending 1-3 months shopping before making their purchase.

What do you think of these stats?

Add your comments, suggestions and opinions below.

Lab42 Car Buying Infographic

Infographic courtesy of Lab42

Jeff Kershner
Founder of DealerRefresh - 20+ Years of dealership Sales, Management, Training, Marketing and Leadership.
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    Janis Williams Showers
  • February 28, 2013
That's why SP need to confirm car on the follow-up call - you are losing people because you're on the wrong car - we are sooooo focused on price we miss this. Good Point Dealer Refresh!
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    Aaron Wirtz
  • February 28, 2013
Simple, useful, to the point. Great post!
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    Hunter Swift
  • February 28, 2013
Biggest mistake in the sales process a salesman can make is trying to hard sell/close someone on the wrong car.
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    Livefyre
  • February 28, 2013
Biggest mistake in the sales process a salesman can make is trying to hard sell/close someone on the wrong car.
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    Dealer HD
  • February 28, 2013
Very cool info graphic.
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    Livefyre
  • February 28, 2013
Very cool info graphic.
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    DrewAment
  • February 28, 2013
** 73% wish there was one fixed price for each car so there was no negotiation needed
 
There is one price.. it is called MSRP!  :)
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    wbryant
  • March 1, 2013
I'm curious about the source of this data... 73% want one and ONLY one price??? I wouldn't be surprised to find a half-truth in that... consumers wish they only had to deal with one price. But once they get to the store to do the deal, so many want to negotiate. Even with all the research being done and that research being sold as a benefit. I know a lot of people do want just one price but it's not 73%.
 
And 52% don't know what make or model they're going to buy? I know a lot buy something other than what they intended, but 52% have no clue?
 
I dunno....
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    dealerrefresh
  • March 1, 2013
52% don't know what they want to buy? I would argue with this. I WOULD agree that over 52% don't purchase the exact vehicle (model, color, trim, option, used/new) they intended to before they stepped into the dealership.
I do believe consumers want One Price, in theory, but have been conditioned to negotiate. Thats the industries fault. Reversing that conditioning has proven to be a huge challenge.
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    Ralph Ebersole
  • March 2, 2013
I agree with you Jeff.  After all of the research done online, consumers come to a store knowing what they want.  What they want and what they end up with are two different things, as there is still no substitute from the "brink and mortar" experience.  
 
On One Price--these stats have dropped from J.D. Power  survey 17 years ago where consumers said they would prefer to go through a root canal than negotiating for a car.   It was in the low 90% range if memory serve me well.  Reversing that conditioning is going to continue to be a challenge.  I think that the trade value enter into this issue, as it's still true that the value of a trade is in the eyes of the appraiser, thus different values at different stores opens the door to negotiate.  I also think there is a substantial number in our industry that don't care to see negation change.
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    Lab42Research
  • March 4, 2013
@ADP_Cobalt @dealerrefresh Thanks for sharing our infographic! We appreciate it :)
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    dealerrefresh
  • March 4, 2013
@Lab42Research thanks for putting it together! Great data.
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    VoltageFuel
  • March 5, 2013
Someone should create an info-graphic about the day in the life of an auto salesperson - whether consumers believe it or not, most salespeople I ever met are just trying to earn an honest living, and if customers knew what we know, they would never want our job knowing what we deal with too. How many customers bring the animosity to the dealership as opposed to the car sales guy? And how many of you watch a customer leave the showroom, and everyone looks at each other and says: wow, what a jerk! They were completely unrealistic! We know what is said because we often find the customer a lot more unrealistic than we are. Who created the animosity? How about KBB, Edmunds, and all the other so-called authoritative websites which post article after article about salespeople's tricks and deceptions. We don't ever get a break. I worked in the ISM capacity for 10 years and most  people buy the new car they requested a quote online about, most of the time, maybe a trim level change. Used cars are different, because people make impulsive decisions about the car they like more often than not.  Maybe if car dealers sold cars like selling steaks at a restaurant, we'd be better off. Okay Mr. Customer you can buy the Aged Prime Steak (perfect condition used car highest price), or the Prime Steak (good but obviously you have to buy the tires if you want new ones, not perfect), or Prime Choice (this is like buying from a private buyer at the lower price you saw online - you get what you pay for, this is the one I can sell at the price you want to pay). Take your pick! Obviously you can't go to Ruth-Chris and get an aged prime steak for the price of prime choice - it's an unrealistic request.
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