8:10 am, March 19, 2025
Car buyers are ‘more disloyal than ever’ and are far more open to switching to a new brand than in previous years.
That is according to fresh data from Google, which has been analysing automotive market trends over the past few years.
The research was presented on stage at Car Dealer Live, where the tech giant’s omnichannel strategist, Mohammad Lone, was on hand to talk guests through the findings.
A self-confessed petrol head, Lone revealed that last year saw a major hike of around 13% for automotive related searches on Google.
That rise was seen even more steeply on YouTube, where there was a 25% jump.
Lone says that people are mostly searching for issues around cost and car finance – despite recent uncertainty around the latter.
Discussing recent trends at the British Motor Museum, he said: ‘The profound trend we’ve been seeing is consumers are searching more than ever so when we look at year-on-year trends between 2024 and 2023 we see a 13% rise in searches for auto.
‘On YouTube we’ve seen an even bigger increase – there has been a 25% increase in views on automotive-related content.
‘Specifically, when we drill down into what people are searching more for there are two things that really stand out. In a time of a cost-of-living crisis it is understandable that the two top trending things are finance and prices.
‘We have seen around an 11% increase in interest in price queries and about 8% in car finance.’
Speaking with Car Dealer’s James Baggott, Lone was asked about what impact the influx of new Chinese brands have had on consumer behaviour.
The expert said that brand loyalty has been disappearing since 2019, with people generally considering as many as seven manufacturers now – compared to just three last year.
Google’s data also revealed that a whopping 75% of customers now switch brands when changing cars, representing a complete collapse in customer loyalty.
Lone added: ‘Trends that we have been seeing since 2019 show generic searches constantly rising – so people not necessarily looking for specific brands but asking questions to Google about the overall market.
‘They’re asking it “What are the best SUVs?” rather than “What are the best Vauxhalls or VWs?”.
‘In addition to that, we’ve been seeing the increasing number of brands available today and consumers are following suit with that.
‘Our studies showed that 75% of consumers bought a different brand of car to the one that they had previously. When we look to three years ago, the average number of brands under consideration by the consumer was about four or three and last year we saw that number rise to seven.
‘Consumers are more disloyal in many ways than ever. They’re more open to being convinced by new brands and that’s where the Chinese brands – the non-traditional OEM brands as well – are really getting traction.’
You can read all the headlines from Car Dealer Live 2025 here.
