This story first appeared in the April issue of AutoTalk – CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE
More Australians looking to buy new cars are searching for them online.
Roy Morgan Research shows more than four in ten Australians who intend to buy a new car before 2020 have recently done some automotive research online – whether it’s comparing vehicle prices, features or financing options, or locating dealers and contacting manufacturers.
The research also reveals a record number of Australians are looking to purchase a vehicle this year as consumer confidence bounces back from 2016 levels.
As the planned purchase date draws closer, more and more intending buyers hit the internet. By the time the purchase is less than a month away, nearly three in four have done some automotive research online.
Roy Morgan’s latest automotive currency report estimates 2.37 million Australians are now in the market to buy a brand-new car within the next four years.
Overall, 43% of them report using the internet for car-buying research in the past six months—but that figure rises as the purchase date nears.
Most buyers who plan to hit the dealerships within the next two years have by then already gone online to so some preliminary car research (51%).
Internet usage for auto research doesn’t increase too much over the next 18 months: up to 56% of all 2017 buyers and 58% of those looking to buy before July.
Instead the big spike happens only once buyers get within three months of purchase: by then 69% have looked up car information online.
A few remaining car buyers leave it until the very last minute to do some online research: 72% them buying a car within a month.
According to the study, even four years out from purchase, just over a quarter of intending buyers have already gone online to check out prices.
The online activity really picks up once buyers come within a year of purchase and again three months out.
But when it comes to researching finance options, the big surge occurs once buyers are four to six months out from their anticipated purchase date.
Two to three months ahead of purchase, many buyers start making general enquiries online, locating dealers and asking manufacturers and dealers to contact them.
The incidence of checking vehicle features online grows steadily, along with checking prices, right across the timeline but there is an extra spike right at the end. More than one in four new car buyers don’t go online to look up features until their purchase is imminent.
“It’s been nearly a decade since the internet first overtook newspapers as the media most useful for new car buyers,” Roy Morgan Research automotive industry director Jordan Pakes says.
“It’s vital for manufacturers and dealers to understand when in the process different car buyers first start researching various factors that will impact their eventual purchase decision.
“While much of the initial ‘digital disruption’ of consumer purchasing behaviour has now been absorbed, the next decade will mark further rapid advances to automotive technology and people’s attitudes to cars and transport.”
50,000-plus plan to buy a new car in 2017
The Australian new car market got off to a solid start to 2017, echoing increased consumer confidence
in January.
Now an estimated 618,000 Australians plan to buy a new car by the end of the year—some 50,000 more than at the end of 2016.
This new-year uptick is supported by growth in the broader, longer term market—and higher confidence about Australia’s longer term economic conditions.
Overall, 2.37 million Australians say they intend to buy a new car in the next four years—the most prospective buyers since early 2015.
According to Roy Morgan Research, the strengthened new car intention in January 2017 correlates to a big new-year bounce in the ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence index, which started 2017 5.9% higher than its pre-Christmas level.
Confidence pulled back slightly in February and March but remains well above where it finished last year.
But Pakes says not everyone is equally confident and comfortable.
“Analysis of the market using Roy Morgan’s Helix Personas segmentation indicates a growing divide between the ‘haves and have-nots’ when it comes to buying a new car,” he says.
“These types of high-end buyers are replacing ‘Today’s Families’ and ‘Aussie Achievers’, the traditional suburban middle class. At the start of 2016, these two segments represented 24% of the new car market; now they are 21% of buyers.
“Given this growth in Leading Lifestyles, it’s no coincidence that brands such as BMW, VW and Mazda have started the year on a positive note – all registering increased purchase consideration since December.”
With a shifting marketplace, automotive brands need to ensure they stay on top of where their current drivers, repeat customers and new intending buyers fit,
Pakes says.
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