Loyalty to the Dealership
and Loyalty to the Make
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.
Just over half of those respondents who purchased from a dealership (50.6%) said that they would "probably" or "definitely" purchase from the same dealership the next time they are in the market (34.3% "probably", 16.3% "definitely"). A little over one fourth (26.9%) were not inclined to purchase again from the same store (12.9% "probably not", 14.0% "definitely not").
Intention to purchase again from the same dealership:
When asked which make of vehicle they currently drive and then later asked which one make of vehicle they would most seriously consider for their next vehicle purchase, over four in ten respondents (41.4%) indicated that they would most seriously consider the same make of vehicle again. Almost a fourth of the respondents (22.7%) were undecided regarding the make of their next vehicle and over a third (35.9%) indicated that they intended to purchase a vehicle of a different make next time. The likelihood of purchasing the same make of vehicle next time increased dramatically with age. Make loyalty was lowest among females 18 to 24 years old, where less than a fourth (23.5%) intended to purchase the same make next. Make loyalty tended to increase among increasingly older age categories for both genders and was highest among women 65 years and over, where six in ten (59.7%) intend to purchase the same make of vehicle next time.
Loyalty to vehicle make: (Repeat purchase intention)
Make loyalty was highest among owners of domestic vehicles; 42.3% of domestic vehicle owners indicated that they would most seriously consider purchasing the same make next time. A little over a third of the Japanese nameplate owners (35.2%) indicated that they would most seriously consider purchasing the same make next time and just less than a third of the European nameplate owners (32.5%) indicated that they would most seriously consider purchasing the same make next time.
For those who would most seriously consider a different make of vehicle for their next purchase, the top responses as to "Why?" were: "better quality" (29.3%), "better styling and looks" (22.4%), "better performance and handling" (12.4%), "more reliable" (12.2%) and "more spacious" (10.9%).
Loyalty to the Dealership vs. Loyalty to the Make Top
Most respondents (57.8%) said that they are more loyal to a certain make of vehicle than to a dealership, while only one in ten (11.8%) said they were more loyal to a dealership than to a make of vehicle. Loyalty to the dealership was highest among 18 to 24 year olds (21.6%), decreasing to 7.8% among 35 to 49 year olds, and then increasing again to 16.1% for those 65 years and over. Loyalty to the vehicle make was lowest among 18 to 24 year olds (51.8%) increasing with age to 64% for the 50 to 64 age category and then fell for those 65 and over (50.3%).
Are buyers more loyal to a certain make of vehicle or more loyal to a
dealership:
Dealership Experience and Loyalties to the Dealership and to the Make. Top
When we segment the dealership experience and loyalty responses by 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:
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:
Dealership loyalty was calculated based on respondents' intentions to purchase again from the same dealership. For analytical purposes, "definitely" was given a score of +2, "probably" a score of +1, "may or may not" a score of 0, "probably not" a score of -1 and "definitely not" a score of -2 and a mean score for each was calculated. The age and gender pattern of dealership loyalty tracks very similarly to the purchase and service experience patterns. Females tended to exhibit greater loyalty than males for nearly all age categories. Dealership loyalty was highest among females 18 to 24 and was lowest among those 25 to 49, increasing again among those 50 to 64 and those 65 and older. Dealership loyalty among males was somewhat higher among those 18 to 24, lowest among those 25 to 49 and increasing among those 50 to 64, where, as did satisfaction, dealership loyalty plateaus among those males 65 and over.
Dealership loyalty: (Repeat purchase intention)
Loyalty to vehicle make among females is lowest among the 18 to 24 year olds and increases across increasing age categories. For males, make loyalty is moderate among 18 to 24 year olds, lowest among those 25 to 34 years old and then gradually increases among increasing age categories from 35 years old to 65 and over.
Make loyalty: (Repeat purchase intention) 
From the tables above, we see that older individuals tend to be more satisfied with their dealership experiences and are more loyal to both their dealerships and to the makes of their vehicles. The "Generation Xers" are the least satisfied with their dealership experiences and are much less loyal to the dealerships and to their vehicle makes.
Females 18 to 24 are very loyal to their dealerships and not nearly as loyal to the makes of their vehicles. For females 25 to 34, dealership loyalty is low, make loyalty has increased and continues to increase across increasing age categories. From 25 years on up, the females are substantially more loyal to the make than males. And, older females (50 and up) are substantially more loyal to their dealerships than are males.
Lessee's Loyalties to the Dealership and to the Make Top
Those who leased their vehicles are more inclined to return to the dealership for their next purchase than those who had purchased their vehicles from a dealership (23.2% of those who leased said they would "definitely" go back and 30.4% said "probably" versus 15.8% of those who purchased said they would "definitely" go back and 34.6% of those who purchased said they would "probably" return to the dealership for their next purchase.)
Further, 57.3% of those who leased their current vehicle planned to get the same make of vehicle next time, while 45.7% of those who purchased their current vehicle planned to get the same make of vehicle next time.
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