Survey Says: Buyers Slant Toward Domestics, if Any

Cars.com did some research recently to find out more about its users. We had an independent firm ask a whole bunch of interesting questions of more than 1,000 carefully selected participants that show a cross section of the country. The survey took place in January 2007 and has a sampling error of plus or minus 3%, with a 95% level of confidence.

One interesting question asked was: “When you purchased your last car, did you consider whether your car was American or foreign made?”

Almost exactly half, 49.9%, said it didn’t matter; they picked the car they wanted without considering where it was built (or, more accurately, where the automaker is based). The big surprise was that 32.5% do indeed prefer buying cars from American automakers, compared to 17.5%, who preferred foreign automakers. That’s a pretty good advantage. 

One other interesting result we can share with you includes the most important factors that come into the car-buying decision. Price is still No. 1, with 88.1% ranking it their top priority. The second spot, however, was a bit of a surprise: Fuel efficiency came in a very close second at 75.9%, and safety came in third at 69.2%. 

Do these results fall in line with your car-purchasing decisions? 

Comments

In order of priority:

Dependability
Fuel Economy
Price
Safety
Style

Reliability, safety, utility, then price in my book, similar to PapaWhiskey. Style? pretty low on the list.

Last car we purchased was a Japan-assembled Mazda5, 0% US/NAFTA parts content. Previous 2 cars purchased were Toyotas assembled in the US with 90% US/NAFTA parts contents.

-Price (cost associated with unscheduled and scheduled maintenance), which I think includes reliability
-Fuel Economy
-Performance
-Aesthetics

All of these add together to for VALUE from which I make my decision. The order of importance can change as long as they add up to the highest VALUE score. I'd give up some fuel economy for better performance as long as I felt what was given up was worth it. The Subaru WRX STI isn't particularly pretty...but HELL...who cares? I think most people's priorities can be rearranged if tempted.

Cost, safety, reliability, resale value, cost to maintain and comfort top my list.

For a stingy college guy who the hell out of himself, here is his list:
1.Reliability(Break-downs costs $, and $ means more work)
2.Fuel Economy(Fuel = $, Big gulper = $$$)
3.Insurance rating(Again, means $)
4.Resale Value(Having my first car totaled told a story about owning an Accord and owning a Taurus is a completely different story.)
5.Utility(Moving same amount of people/cargo, better utility = less trips = $; worse utility = more trips = $$$)
The list goes on about $ again and again...

Last thing to consider, style. Who cares about style, if the car meets all the above criteria? I am a geek anyway!

Well somebody's got to go against the tide.

So I'll say looks FIRST
Then price (because no matter how good it looks If I can't afford it it's moot. conversely I can afford a lot of ugly cars)
Then performance

Reliability? I consider myself fairly knowlageable about prioritizing repairs. If buying a car used car with a poor reputation that appears to be well maintained allows me to take $2k off the asking price, I'll pocket the money and save it for a rainy day repairs. Name brands don't mean anything if the car was abbused.

Fuel Ecomomy? Unless I went from a Honda Civic to an F-150 (or vice versa) I doubt I'd notice much difference. Sure, I remember filling up for under $25 and stretching $5 over a week. Frankly, I consistantly pay more in a month for mandatory insurance than I ever did for gas.

Yes, but clearly the 49.9% that look at overall value are skewing towards foreign makes anyways... just look at the numbers. We don't buy Toyotas and Hondas because we love Japan. We buy Toyotas and Hondas because they fulfull the value equation.

For me it's this order:

Performance
Styling
Price
Fuel economy
Safety

My current vehicles are a 2001 Neon ACR and a 2006 Charger SRT-8, both of which place performance first.

I bought my ford fusion because I liked the car, I wouldn't have bought a ford if it were not for this car. But when looking at cars I found this one the most comfortable and liked that it had awd and handled/braked better than honda etc. it certainly was a nice surprise that it was a ford because I like driving a domestic (even if it is actuall built in mexico)

I tend to be an automotive enthusiast, and like most males, tend to be very visual.

As a result, what grabs me first is the car's looks. If I don't like how it looks (and I can say that about 95% of what's built today), I won't give it a second look. After that, I look for price. Then, I start looking at things like comfort, convenience, safety. Fuel economy is a consideration, but most of the vehicles I look at tend to have similar fuel economy ratings anyway.