Despite all of the hype surrounding social media acceptance in the car industry, it seems it is all unfounded when it comes to young people buying a car, according to a recent Autotrader.com survey.
Just 1% of car buyers use social sites to shop for a vehicle, according to an AutoTrader.com survey.
“Generation Y – those born between 1981 and 1994 and millenials born 1995-2009 – who are the most attracted to social media, barely use sites such as Facebook and Twitter for car shopping,” says Isabelle Helms, vice president of research and market intelligence for AutoTrader.com.
Only 5% of millennials surveyed said they used social media to shop for vehicles, the study showed.
“Millennials are apathetic about whether auto Web sites or brands have a social presence,” says Helms. She says that 78% of millennials in the study said their attitude toward a car brand would not change if the brand had a social networking presence.
Helms said social media is used to network with friends, not to shop for cars.
AutoTrader.com’s study was conducted by IHS Automotive between December and February. A total of 1900 car buyers within the past year were surveyed, including about 300 millennials.
Although they are bypassing social media, the 18-34 year old market is making the Internet and mobile devices mainstays of car shopping.
A total of 95% of millennials car shop online, spending online 82% of the average 17.6 hours they take to research and buy a car. By comparison, all 1900 respondents on average took 15.5 hours to research and buy a car, with 75% of the time online.
Smartphones and other mobile devices also are crucial to a millennial’s car shopping. 51% of millennials used a smartphone to shop for a vehicle compared to 34% a year ago.
By 2020, Helms says 80% of car shoppers will use multiple devices for shopping, including smartphones, tablets and desktops, compared to 32% today.
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