Car and Driver: Survey Says! What Our Car-Shopping Survey Revealed About Enthusiasts vs. Non-Enthusiasts

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Lawyers never ask questions without knowing the answers. We as journalists subscribe to the opposite view, but conducting a reader ­survey falls in between. With this one, we sought to tease out some numbers regarding car buying. Here’s one: 80 percent of respondents were “very satisfied” or “extremely satisfied” with their dealership experience. If that contradicts conventional wisdom, it does explain why 68 percent of respondents would not buy or lease a vehicle without visiting a dealership and 84 percent would not buy or lease without a test drive. Indeed, if the bricks-and-mortar dealership system is going to be overthrown, our survey indicates that Silicon Valley might ally with car enthusiasts. While only 34 percent of non-enthusiasts said they would purchase a car over the internet, 54 percent of enthusiasts would be inclined to do so. We’ve highlighted more of these “significant statistical differences” (as our research department calls them) between enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts in the accompanying graphics.

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Fair Deal?

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Buying a new car usually means trading in an old one. When asked if they were satisfied with the dealer’s offer, 81 percent of enthusiasts said “Yes” compared with only 74 percent of non-enthusiasts. Only 9 percent of enthusiasts were unsure, while 19 percent of non-enthusiasts said they didn’t know if the price was fair.

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• The Dealership of the Future: May Resemble an Apple Store-
• Online Car Sales Are Pitting Carmaker and Dealer Against the Middleman-
• Tesla’s Direct-Sales Gambit Would Be Nothing Without Its Cars-

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And the Millenials?

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The digital generation is expected to impact every aspect of the car business, but it’s a process that still seems nascent. Predictably, our survey shows that car buyers aged 18 to 34 are more likely to have recently purchased their first car than other age groups and are more likely to buy used. And young buyers are more inclined to go shopping in search of a safer car or because of a lifestyle change. Which is what kids have been doing forever—replacing a junker shortly after landing a decent-paying job.

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Younger men are more likely than others to sell their old car online, probably a byproduct of more young buyers being dissatisfied with trade-in offers than other age groups. Despite the stereotype of youthful impatience, men aged 18 to 34 are more likely than others to take more than a year researching their purchase. And yet, younger buyers are more likely than older ones to make taking delivery of a new car their only trip to a dealer.

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It follows that young people are the most likely to use mobile devices for research, prioritizing up-to-date dealer inventories and vehicle-history reports. But younger buyers are also more interested in test drives than other age groups. Indeed, younger buyers can be shockingly conventional. When asked if they would purchase a new car over the internet, 56 percent were disinclined to do so, matching the number of respondents over 55 who reject what is expected to someday be the Holy Grail of car commerce.

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