Do People Still Buy Cars at Dealerships?

With new technologies coming out, it’s been made easier than ever to research cars online and even buy vehicles from your phone on your couch if you so desired, never needing to go to a dealership or even talk to anyone! But the question is, do people prefer this method? Or do they prefer to go to a dealership? Let’s start by giving some statistics about the car buying process.

Do people research before buying a vehicle? Turns out, 92% of people interested in buying cars do research before making a decision. Per Think With Google consumer insights via Hyundai Motor America Internal Data, 95% of researchers still purchase their car at a dealership. This may vary a bit across specific manufacturers, but even on a broad scale, the average is still about 80% of people purchase at a dealership. Lastly, out of all searches being made, and over 8.5 billion searches per day, google owns a whopping 78% of all searches daily across all search platforms. We will get into what this means for dealerships soon.

So the question would be, how many dealerships do shoppers need to go to in order to find the right car? Well, as it turns out, over a third of people shopping for cars end up only going to one dealership! So, let’s get this straight, 92% are searching before making a visit, 78% of those searches are on Google, and over a third of shoppers that visit buy a vehicle from their first dealership they visit? Exactly. What this tells us and more importantly what it tells car dealerships is that they absolutely need to create and have an optimized Google Business Profile!

So if almost all car shoppers are inevitably going to be doing some sort of research before making their purchase and likely deciding to visit your dealership, wouldn’t it make the most sense to get your business profile on Google and optimized to have the highest chance of bringing in more customers to your location? Optimizing your Google business Profile has numerous benefits aside from just having easy access to your contact information and location on maps. People also check reviews and if you can manage your reputation by answering reviews timely and post beautiful pictures on your profile you’ll not only increase your organic rankings but increase the likeliness of online searches coming into your dealership.

In conclusion, the answer simply is… YES! Even though times are indeed changing, what doesn’t change is getting a feel for yourself, seeing and feeling the drive in person typically tends to be what’s most important. At the end of the day, if the car looks good, but just doesn’t feel or perform the way you like, then you’re not likely to get it and make a choice on something else. What better feeling than making the purchase and driving it off the lot the same day? Nobody wants to wait several days or weeks after spending hundreds or thousands of dollars. Dealerships need to be on Google and take advantage of their digital showroom. In need of a dedicated team of professionals? Contact us today!