Why online car shoppers search the web for more than price

Product-related information has become the primary focus for new-vehicle shoppers who use the Internet to research models, significantly surpassing price information for the first time, says a new study from J.D. Power and Associates.

The study finds that while some shoppers know which vehicle they are looking for before going online, 79% of automotive Internet users are impacted in their vehicle selection by information found on the Internet. This compares to 78% who are impacted in how much they paid or offered for the vehicle they purchased.

"Automotive Internet usage has gone through a tremendous transformation in its 10-year history," says Dennis Galbraith, senior director of online marketing solutions at J.D. Power and Associates. "Initially, the Internet was primarily thought of as a tool for getting the best price on a vehicle. Today, consumers are even more impacted by the Internet in which vehicle they buy than how much they pay for it."

Along with this trend, manufacturer web site visitation continues to increase among all new-vehicle buyers, while visits to independent sites (sites not controlled by a vehicle dealer or manufacturer) remain flat. On average, buyers say they rely most on manufacturer-sponsored sites for product information and on independent sites for price-related information.

While the majority of buyers visit the brand’s web site before they purchase a model, they typically visit a multitude of sites before finalizing their vehicle selection. For every manufacturer, at least 80% of their site visitors who buy a new vehicle will visit at least one other manufacturer site.

"There is tremendous market share at stake in the battle to turn site visitors into buyers," said Galbraith. "Manufacturers will continue to move hundreds of millions of marketing dollars toward their online efforts and will become more efficient marketers in the process."

At the same time, consumers are using the Internet to adjust to the fact that there are more models to choose from and more options and accessories to customize vehicles.

"A greater emphasis on finding the right vehicle is good for consumers," says Galbraith. "Vehicle depreciation is so high that the cost of buying the wrong vehicle can be far greater than the cost of paying a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars more than a better negotiator might have paid. In practice, most vehicle buyers are minimizing the risk of buyer’s remorse by using the Internet to find both the right vehicle and the right price."

A record high 67% of new-vehicle buyers use the Internet in their vehicle shopping process—up from 64% in 2004. Nearly all (89%) of these consumers visit a search engine or portal (such as AOL, Google, MSN and Yahoo!) as part of their shopping process. 77% of these consumers visit at least one independent web site and typically visit this type of site first in their vehicle shopping process.

"Independent sites are likely to add robust tools to help shoppers identify the right vehicle across all brands for their particular preferences or lifestyle," says Galbraith. "There remains a great deal of content opportunity for independent sites."