Buying habits demonstrate a widespread desire for change
Are American car buyers prone to buying new automobiles right off of dealer lots because they are too impatient to wait a few weeks for a built-to-order car? To hearAutomotive News tell it in a recent report, that’s exactly the situation. But look across the pond: The reason Europeans place orders for 50 percent of their new cars, unlike Americans and their 5 percent, might not have as much to do with being more leisurely with their time than it does with their attitude toward dealers.
According to AN, American consumers want immediate satisfaction upon visiting a dealership, so they look through the lot and pick a car that best serves their needs. They don’t want the hassle of waiting for a car to show up—and indeed there is a waiting period. As one example, General Motors says the average time it takes from order to delivery of one of its vehicles is 28-42 days; Americans allegedly want the convenience of getting a car today.
But there are other causes. Last year, Time published an article that sampled 10,000 people and asked them about the dealership experience. Three quarters said, “If given the opportunity, they would consider making their entire car-buying process an online affair, including financing, and home delivery.” However, long delivery times still served as a major factor to those customers when considering ordering online.
Consumers want an experience like they have when they go onto Amazon. Low pressure. They search through their options at their leisure, find the product they want, click order, and have the purchase show up in a reasonable amount of time.
Dealership horror stories litter the internet, and you yourself probably have experienced or know someone who’s experienced the ineptitude of dealership salespeople. With that, even those that have attempted to order a car through a dealership have found the situation difficult. One Redditor described their ordering order that was laced with incompetency and delays due to dealership error.
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Automobile Magazine