7:34 am, May 31, 2020
The longest most buyers will wait for their car is eight weeks – and they’ll look to another brand if dealers can’t satisfy their requests.
That’s among the findings of the latest What Car? Insight report.
What’s more, the number of people saying they were looking to buy beyond six months’ time has fallen steeply – from 55 per cent in March to 21 per cent now.
Rachael Prasher, pictured, managing director of What Car? and Haymarket Automotive, said its poll of visitors to whatcar.com showed a firming-up of those prepared to wait just four weeks for a ‘factory order’ – going up from 33 per cent to 37 per cent.
She added that the data also suggested that the longest most people would wait is eight weeks – another 26 per cent gave that as their maximum – unless it really was a must-have.
Focusing on ‘the headline behind the headline’, she highlighted the fact that if a customer’s first choice couldn’t be met, more and more respondents were saying they’d look elsewhere, with that number leaping from 25 per cent to 35 per cent in the past week.
To reinforce the point, those not bothered about the exact spec, colour, trim, engine and more would also flip to another brand – up to 14.5 per cent from 12.7 per cent two weeks ago.
Prasher said What Car? was now seeing a massive rise in in-market consumers researching and looking for the best deal – 47 per cent higher than during the first week of lockdown, with the same level of inquiries being generated to its dealer partners as in early March, when lockdown was seen as a possibility rather than a certainty.
However, the fact that there had been a large drop in the number of people indicating they were looking to buy beyond six months was, she said, ‘stark’ – and why the government needed to instigate an incentive scheme sooner not later.
She recommended a broad approach that not only removed older cars from the road but also acknowledged ‘the giant environmental strides’ reflected by the latest petrol, diesel and electrified vehicles.
- In the video below, Haymarket Automotive retail sales and services director Kate Hannam explains how What Car?’s New Car Buying system can help dealers – and why it’s been made free for longer
More: Have we begun to turn a corner, asks What Car?
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