Two Thirds Of Multiple Forecourt Visits Are ‘down To The Deal’

Half of buyers visit only one dealer on the road to their next car. But the lure of a better deal is what drives 67% of the rest to visit multiple forecourts. That's the latest finding from Auto Trader's Buyer Behaviour Survey which pooled the views of more than 1,300 new and used car buyers earlier this year.

According to the research, 19% of buyers visit two dealers and 31% visit three or more. Two thirds said that one of the key reasons for multiple showroom visits was to shop around for a better deal. An additional 19% pointed to poor service as the driver.

"We know that online research is king for the vast majority of buyers," said Nick King, Auto Trader's Market Research Director. "The fact that half of buyers visit only one dealer en route to their purchase shows that many are armed with all they need before they arrive on a forecourt ready to do a deal."

"However, half choose to visit multiple sites and that shows there's still a job to be done on the forecourt itself. We know from other research that not achieving an anticipated part-exchange value is cited as the biggest cause of deal breakdown among consumers, reinforcing the need to align expectations on pricing. Helping consumers with part exchange values and making sure that cars in stock are closely priced to the retail market value gives sellers the best chance of making a sale."

About The Annual Buyer Behaviour Study

The Annual Buyer Behaviour Study was set up to get a better understanding of consumer behaviour and journeys when buying a car through franchise, independent and supermarket retailers. The second study built on a pilot undertaken last year.

Consumer sales data was supplied to Auto Trader - the UK's largest digital automotive marketplace for buying and selling new and used vehicles - by participating dealers. This was then supplied to research agency GfK. GfK conducted telephone surveys with 1,300 customers (624 franchise, 376 independents and 300 supermarkets) over a three month period, asking about their buying journey and experience.

For all trade media enquiries, please contact:

Nigel Wonnacott, PR Director at JJ Marketing, on 07802 483 971 or nigel.wonnacott@jjmarketing.co.uk

Notes to Editors:

Auto Trader Group plc is a 100% digital business having successfully completed the transition from a print title in 2013. Auto Trader sits at the heart of the UK's vehicle buying process and operates the UK's largest digital automotive marketplace.

Auto Trader's primary activity is to help vehicle retailers compete effectively on the Marketplace in order to sell more vehicles, faster. The Marketplace brings together the largest and most engaged consumer audience. Autotrader.co.uk attracts around 44.5 million monthly cross-platform visits on its sites, with around 68% of visits coming through mobile devices, with the largest pool of vehicle sellers (listing more than 400,000 cars each day). In fact over 80% of all time spent on classified sites is spent on Auto Trader. The Group does not buy or sell any vehicles itself.

Auto Trader has around 92% prompted brand awareness in the UK, with 80% of UK retailer forecourts advertising via the website and around 65% of UK used car transactions involving cars listed on autotrader.co.uk.

Auto Trader's market-leading position enables it to generate and collect large amounts of data on the UK's automotive marketplace and leverage it to create a suite of services that allow retailers to:

BUY – buy the right vehicles, at the right price

MARKET - market their brands and businesses effectively in the digital world

SELL- sell more vehicles through advertising on the UK's largest digital automotive marketplace

MANAGE – optimise their stock turn and vehicle margin.

For more information please visit http://about-us.autotrader.co.uk