Dealership Experiences
April, 1996
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This 1996 Management White Paper is being provided by The Dohring Company as a supplement to our 1996 National Automotive Consumer Study.
The national study, provided as a service to the automotive industry, focused on the most topical issues of the day including:
This white paper is intended to provide in-depth answers to help you better understand the consumer perspective on specific issues.
The national study has not been funded by any outside source and is strictly provided as a service. The design intention was to address several primary areas of importance to our automotive, OEM supplier and dealer client base.
The Dohring Company is North America's largest provider of custom market research to the retail automotive community. We have conducted more that 3,000 automotive market research studies for dealers, dealer associations, advertising agencies, manufacturers and suppliers in North America and internationally. The company, based in Glendale, California, employs over 100 full time staff and has conducted over 300,000 interviews with vehicle buyers in 1995 alone, and over one million in the past ten years.
Additionally, we are proud to have been designated Marketing Research Supplier to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
The Dohring Company is a full-service provider of marketing research and the developer of TrendTrak®, our exclusive on-site survey polling device. For additional information, please contact us at 1-800-242-8022.
A total of 1,253 respondents were surveyed from across the 50 United States in proportion to their household populations. All respondents were surveyed by telephone during December 1995, and were qualified as intending to purchase a new or used vehicle in the future from a new car dealership. The study has a standard error of ± 2.8%.
Over three fourths (78.2%) of the respondents surveyed had purchased their current vehicle from a new car dealership. Of those, 59.2% had purchased their vehicles new and 40.8% had purchased their vehicles used.
Three fourths (75.2%) of these car owners had negotiated the purchase of their current vehicle and about one fourth (24.8%) had paid the seller's exact asking price. Of those who negotiated their vehicle purchase, almost two thirds (65.2%) said that they liked the negotiation process,while only 21.7% said they disliked the negotiation. Compared with earlier Dohring Company national studies, there is a trend of increasing consumers' satisfaction with their most recent negotiation process from 1993 to 1996.
Liked vs. disliked most recent purchase negotiation:
The vast majority of respondents rated their experience with the dealership in purchasing their vehicle as "good" (47.9%) or "excellent" (33.8%); only 11.6% rated the purchase experience "fair" and 5.2% rated the experience "poor". More females rated their purchase experience "excellent" (38.8%) than males (28.0%). The age category of respondents who rated their purchase experience lowest were the 25 to 34 year olds (only 24.2% rated it "excellent"), and satisfaction with the purchase experience increased across age categories and was highest among those 65 years or older (47.0% of those 65+ rated it "excellent").
Rating of most recent vehicle purchase experience:
Dealership Experience and Loyalties to the Dealership and to the Make Top
When we segment the dealership purchase experience into gender and then into age categories, a pattern of relationships emerges. The dealership purchase experience is rated highly by those 18 to 24 years old. These individuals are relatively new to the car purchasing experience, they have likely had fewer purchases than other age categories and those experiences would most likely have occurred within the past few years. Those 25 to 34 are generally the least satisfied with their purchase experience and they seem to be the most difficult age category to satisfy. Females' satisfaction with the purchase experience then increases among successively older age categories. Males' satisfaction then increases up to the 50 to 64 year old category, where it plateaus. From this, we also see that males tended to rate their satisfaction with the purchase experience lower than females of the same age category.
Dealership purchase experience:
Of those few who rated their purchase experience at the dealership "fair" or "poor", 65.4% said that negative purchase experience would influence them against going back to the same dealership to purchase another vehicle. Females in this group were more likely to be influenced against going back to the same dealership to purchase another vehicle (72.0%) than males (59.5%).
Of those few who rated their purchase experience at the dealership "fair" or "poor", almost half (49.1%) said that negative purchase experience would influence them against going to the dealership for service. Younger respondents (18-34 years old) in this group were much more likely to be influenced against going back to the dealership for service (63.3%) than older respondents (50 years and over, 36.6%).
Did the poor purchase experience influence buyers against going back
to the dealership:*
*Those who had "fair" or "poor" vehicle purchase experiences
Almost two thirds of those who purchased their vehicles from dealerships (65.8%) have taken their vehicles back to the dealership for service. Over three fourths of respondents 50 years of age and over (76.1%) have taken their vehicles to their dealerships for service, while a little over half (56.4%) of the respondents 18 to 34 years old have taken their vehicles back to their dealerships for service.
The vast majority of respondents who had taken their vehicles back to the dealership for service rated their experience with the dealership in servicing their vehicle "good" (40.6%) or "excellent" (39.2%); only 11.4% rated their experience with the dealership in servicing their vehicle "fair" and 8.3% rated their experience "poor". The age category of respondents who rated their service experience lowest were, again, the 25 to 34 year olds (only 30.1% rated it "excellent"), and satisfaction with the service experience increased across age categories and was highest among those 65 years old or older (54.0% of those 65+ rated it excellent").
Rating of dealership experience in servicing their vehicle:
When we segment the dealership service experience by gender, and then into age categories, a similar pattern is demonstrated regarding satisfaction with the service experience at dealerships. Satisfaction is initially high among those 18 to 24 years old and those 25 to 34 years old are most difficult to satisfy. Again, satisfaction with the service department experience increases among the older age categories, however for those 65 years and over, females' satisfaction continues to increase, while males' 65 years and over satisfaction with their service department experience is lower than that of those 50 to 64 years of age. One very significant point from this graph, again, is that, despite the high level of concern regarding females' satisfaction with their service department experience, on the whole, females are more highly satisfied with their service department experience than males. Both the dealership purchase and service experiences show very similar satisfaction patterns across the age and gender categories.
Dealership service experience:
Of those few who rated their service experience "fair" to "poor", 58.2% said that negative service experience did or would influence them against going to that dealership to purchase another vehicle. Females were more likely to be influenced against going back to the dealership for a future purchase (61.2%) than males (54.5%). Also, younger individuals (18 to 34 years old) were more likely to be influenced against going back to the dealership for a future purchase (62.5%) than individuals 50 years and over (46.3%).
Over two thirds of those who had "fair" or "poor" service department experiences (70.5%) said that negative service experience did or would influence them against going back to that dealership again for service.
Did the poor service department experience influence
buyers against going back to the dealership :*
*Those who had "fair" or "poor" vehicle service experiences
Ratings of the Dealerships and Dealership Personnel Top
Respondents were asked to rate their impressions of new car dealerships and certain dealership personnel. The rating very favorable was assigned the value of 2.0, favorable was assigned the value of 1.0, neither favorable nor unfavorable was assigned the value of 0.0, mostly unfavorable was assigned the value of -1.0, very unfavorable was assigned the value of -2.0 and mean scores for each were calculated and are presented below.
Impressions of auto dealerships:
When asked to compare their overall impressions of dealerships and their personnel today to their impressions five years ago, the rating more favorable was assigned the value of 1.0, the same was assigned the value of 0.0, less favorable was assigned the value -1.0 and mean scores were calculated and are presented below.
Overall impressions compared to 5 years ago:
Used car salespeople were clearly rated lowest and and were rated substantially below the other dealership personnel on both ratings.
Preference for Multiple Franchise Dealerships Top
Over half of the respondents (50.7%) said they would prefer to shop a dealership which sells two or more makes of vehicles and only 30.6% said they would prefer to shop a dealership which sells only one make. For those who would prefer to shop a dealership which sells more than one make of vehicle, the top response was for dealerships which sell three different makes of vehicle (30.2%). The overall average number of makes preferred per dealership was 2.5.
Prefer to shop a dealership which
sells how many makes of vehicles:
Respondents intending to purchase a European nameplate, however, were less likely to prefer shopping and purchasing from a multiple franchise dealership than those intending to purchase Domestic or Japanese nameplates.
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