7:46 am, April 1, 2021
Online used car supermarkets like Cazoo, Carzam and Cinch could be gaining ground thanks to a no-haggle policy.
Fixed pricing is becoming increasingly popular with car buyers as they look to avoid awkward haggling situations, says car buying site BuyaCar.
Its research has revealed car buyers would ‘prefer fixed pricing’ and ‘no haggling’ and claims consumers feel ‘short changed by the haggling process’.
The site believes consumers like the convenience of home deliveries and the fixed prices offered on the likes of Cazoo and Carzam.
Andy Oldham, chief executive of the website, said: ‘We already understand from our own customer feedback that confidence is the magic ingredient for happier car-buying and this research reveals the biggest factor undermining confidence in the traditional car-buying process.
‘Although trust in dealer sales teams is remarkably low among a majority of car buyers we believe that the problem is really about trust in the pricing information and the tradition of haggling over price in a physical dealership.
‘The comments made by customers during our research overwhelmingly support the need for a transparent and fixed pricing model as key to building confidence during the car-buying process.
‘We believe that transparent, fixed pricing is just as significant in driving the rapid growth of online motor retail as the convenience of home delivery.’
BuyaCar surveyed 400 consumers – the majority of them on performance car magazine Evo’s website – and found 61 per cent ‘did not trust dealer sales team’, while 49.1 per cent said they didn’t think pricing information was ‘sufficiently clear’.
The website asked motorists what they thought would improve the car-buying process and comments included:
- Fixed prices, no false negotiating
- Set prices – why negotiate when you don’t have to with any other purchase
- Not being made to wait for prices while the sales person discusses it with the manager
- No need to haggle
- More transparency on pricing, rather than the haggling system they use
- I hate the need to haggle, even though I do
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