Top influencing factors for car purchase among future car buyers were having the best price and being able to see or test drive a vehicle
The pandemic escalated digital transformation, which, in the auto industry, resulted in many more options for where, when, and how, consumers can buy a car. Australians appear to have embraced this digitisation, according to findings in YouGov’s latest report. One in five will consider online retailers for their next vehicle purchase (21%) – the highest of the 18 surveyed markets, together with America – while Denmark (6%), Mexico (10%) and Canada (12%) were at the opposite end of the spectrum and least likely to consider online retailers.
The report, titled The road ahead for future car buying, explores if consumers are adopting the industry’s new digital disrupters by examining their past and future car purchase behaviour and the interest and appetite for electrification in the luxury and premium global auto market.
In addition to online car retailers, Australians were also revealed to be more likely than the global average to consider all forms of online car purchase. Consideration was highest for online purchase from car manufacturers with both online and offline presence (23%), followed by online car retailers (21%), manufacturers who purely deal online like Tesla (16%), and online auction sites (11%).
The report also uncovered influencing factors for car purchase among future global car buyers. Having the best price emerged as the top influencing factor for more than six in ten future global car buyers (61%), with the ability to see or test drive a vehicle before buying in second position (56%).
Other financially motivated factors of importance are the ability to ‘trade-in’ current vehicle to receive money off the initial outlay (35%), and the ability to take out a finance arrangement with the same company they are buying from (21%).
After-care service is deemed appealing to three in ten global car buyers (30%) and, whilst a similar proportion welcome the opportunity to deal with live sales associates (29%), around one in ten would prefer to avoid price negotiations (11%) or interactions with sales (8%).
For more insights and analysis, download the full report, The road ahead for future car buying, here.
Methodology:
The insights in this report are drawn from a recent global Custom Research survey uncovering how car purchase behaviour and channels are evolving, the drivers to car purchase and the interest and appetite for electrification in the luxury and premium global auto market. The study covers 18 global markets of more than 19,000 respondents.
Our survey results were further bolstered by connecting research from our syndicated surveys YouGov Global Profiles and BrandIndex. Our survey was fielded the week of 6th to 22nd July 2022.
The YouGov panel provides a naturally accurate and representative view of the population. Data is adjusted using a mild weighting team using interlocking demographic characteristics—methodology considered advanced in the market research space.
Data for Australia was gleaned from a sample of 1,091 respondents representative of the population aged 16+.
