1996 National Study Supplement
Management White Paper

Sport Utility Vehicles

April, 1996

Contents

• Introduction
• Methodology
• Purchasing Sport Utility Vehicles
• Which Makes of Sport Utility Vehicle are Preferred
• Which Safety Features, Options and Accessories do Buyers
  Want on Their Sport Utility Vehicles
• The Sport Utility Vehicle Buyer

Introduction

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:

• Consumer attitudes and perceptions of franchised car dealerships
• One-price selling versus negotiating the purchase
• Purchasing new vehicles versus late model used vehicles
• Used car superstores

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.

Methodology

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%.

The sport utility vehicle market segment is growing rapidly and is going through some dramatic changes. The following information from our 1996 National Automotive Consumer Study sheds some light on emerging trends in this market segment.

Purchasing Sport Utility Vehicles

A greater percentage of future sport utility vehicle buyers intend to purchase their next vehicle new than future purchasers of cars, minivans or light trucks. Four in five future sport utility vehicle buyers (79.5%) intend to purchase their next sport utility vehicle new, while only one in five (20.5%) intend to purchase their next sport utility vehicle used.

Intend to purchase their next vehicle new:

A larger percentage of future sport utility vehicle buyers are intending to lease their next vehicle (9.8%) than future car buyers (9.1%), truck buyers (8.6%) or minivan buyers (5.5%).

About half of future sport utility vehicle buyers (48.5%) will be switching from driving a passenger car to a sport utility vehicle and about a fourth of them (25.8%) are currently driving sport utility vehicles as their primary vehicle.

Type of vehicles future S.U.V. buyers currently drive:

Which Makes of Sport Utility Vehicle are Preferred

Future sport utility vehicle buyers were asked which one make of sport utility vehicle they would most seriously consider for their next vehicle purchase. The top three makes of sport utility vehicle among these future purchasers were Ford (25.8%), Chevrolet (24.2%) and Jeep (21.2%).

One make most seriously considered for future S.U.V. purchase:

Which Safety Features, Options and Accessories do Buyers Want on Their Sport Utility Vehicles

Future sport utility vehicle buyers rated the following safety features more important than future car, minivan and truck buyers did:

• Driver and passenger airbags
  Antilock brakes
  Traction control
  Electronic collision detection system

Future sport utility vehicle buyers rated the following options and accessories more important than future car, minivan and truck buyers did:

From this, it is clear that many future sport utility vehicle buyers will want to purchase their vehicles "loaded" with most of the available and emerging safety features, options and accessories.

For more detailed information regarding preferences for vehicle safety features, options and accessories, please see the Management White Paper entitled:"Safety Features, Options and Accessories."

The Sport Utility Vehicle Buyer

Sport utility vehicles are especially popular among buyers who are currently 25 to 49 years old, as two thirds of future sport utility vehicle buyers (68.9%) are currently in these age categories.

Age demographic for future sport utility buyers:

While the heritage of sport utility vehicles came out of the male dominated light truck market segment, the market for sport utility vehicles is becoming increasingly influenced by the female buyer. Over half of future sport utility vehicle buyers (53.8%) will be female, and four in ten future sport utility buyers (40.2%) will be females between 25 and 49 years old. Many of these females likely intend to use the sport utility vehicle as a family transport vehicle; few S.U.Vs will likely be used for off-road driving and many may never be used for driving in snow or other harsh conditions.

Intend to purchase sport utility vehicles

Respondents who intend to purchase sport utility vehicles as their next vehicles have, on average, substantially higher annual household income than those who intend to purchase cars, minivans or trucks next.

Average annual household income of future vehicle purchasers:

The future popularity of sport utility vehicles will likely be highest in the Northwest, where almost one in seven respondents (14.5%) plan to purchase a sport utility vehicle next, and it will likely be lowest in the Southeast, where about one in eleven respondents (9.1%) intend to purchase a sport utility vehicle next.

Percentage of respondents who intend to purchase a Sport Utility Vehicle:

In comparing future sport utility vehicle buyers to those intending to purchase other types of vehicles next (i.e., cars, minivans and trucks):

More future sport utility buyers had negotiated their last vehicle purchase than buyers intending to purchase other types of vehicles.

Negotiated last vehicle purchase:

However, future sport utility vehicle buyers were less satisfied with their previous purchase negotiation.

Liked vs. disliked most recent purchase negotiation:

More future sport utility buyers have access at home or at work to on-line services, such as Prodigy, CompuServe or America Online, than future buyers of the other vehicle types.

Have access to On-line services:

And, two thirds or more of these new vehicle buyers said they would use the on-line service to obtain vehicle purchase information.