80% Decide Against Car After Visiting Dealer

J.D. Power just released its 2008 Escaped Shopper Study, which — as you can guess from its name — measures why people decided against a certain new car in their-car shopping process. It’s somewhat surprising to learn that 80% of shoppers decide against a model after visiting a dealer.

Three of the top dealer-related reasons for buyers nixing a model included limited availability of different colors, trim levels, etc.; inferior service; and a lack of professionalism from employees.

This is probably the one anecdotal reason we hear most about from readers. If a salesman or dealer mistreats a prospective customer, that’s it. That customer is not only never going back to that dealer again, it also shades their impression of the brand.

The study of nearly 30,000 new-vehicle buyers also found that 40% of buyers decide against a vehicle due to price, with 40% of those shoppers saying it’s not that the car is too expensive, it’s that it doesn’t seem worth the price.

Source: J.D. Power

Comments

I escaped about 6 times in the last 2 years.
Mostly because car I wanted didn't deliver the goods I was looking for. And in Toyota dealer I was looking for new car but dealer was pushing used one to me. I told him that I know that he'll make more money on used one but I am not interested. This started his long explanation after which I decised that I had enough of BS in my ears.

This study is more interesting in the inverse: 20% bought the first car they looked at.

I was torn between a Ford Flex or a Buick Enclave until I visited both dealerships yesterday. The Ford dealership was wonderful, exceeding my expectations in every way, while the Buick dealer felt like a mob operation.

Can Cars.com add a feature where we can give feedback on local dealerships? I would find that very helpful.

what i didn't like about the dealership is that the test run was brief (made it longer than they wanted) and wanted to go straight to the dealing part.

I don't think you can make an honest assesment of the local dealerships. Some of them will write wonderful things about themselves (disguised as customers) and trash the other one.

I never buy new, I can get the same car with 6 months and 10k miles very cheap.

It would be nice to have an abililty to rate a dealership and hopefully the law of averages would work out for the false reviews. One of the local Toyota dealerships fed us all kind of lies, like he good not give us the excellent trade in condition because that was only for other dealers. We did not buy from them and I heard a lot of other bad things about them later so I don't think we were alone. Good idea Jeremy.

I weigh in with IFCAR - all this says is people look at 5 cars before buying one. That's not so surprising for a purchase in the range of $20,000 to 50,000 or more.

The name of the study is telling, too: a shopper isn't someone to help, it's someone to catch.

And what's the difference between "inferior service" and "lack of professionalism from employees?"

Thanks for the dealer rating suggestions guys. That's definitely something Cars.com is interested in.

After years of dealership hopping as a hobby (popping in to see what's new, test driving on non-busy days) dealership professionalism does make a difference. Let's not forget about the whole package though (ie sales, customer service & service dept). Most recent purchase was from a dealer whose professionalism was not to par; however, their customer service & service departments have always excelled. Purchase prior recent purchase was from dealer whose sales team was professional; however, their customer service & service departments was sub-par.

I too have stopped by dealerships to see the new models, and sometime take test drives even though I wasn't in the market to buy. One thing that really turns me off is sales people that gab a lot when I test a car. In fact those dealerships that allow me to drive a car without a sales person riding along is very likely going to win me over and sell me a car. High pressure sales is also a hugh turn-off. Freebies like coffee and donuts, popcorn in a relazing Service Dept. is an incentitive to buy at this dealer.

I do agree with IFCAR: 20% of people just bought the car after visiting the dealer?

I thought in this day and age people would be more choosy. I was. I visited 7 dealerships across four brands before my most recent purchase. And some I went to more than once. I guess there are still people who don't realize how important time is when making a new car decision.

Hmm, I guess this just re-affirms what we all already thought about dealers: the salesman are demon spawn, the walls are made out of the skulls of ruined credit ratings and the sales manager wears his hair long to hide the horns.