For decades now, the experience of buying a car has been viewed by the masses as entailing a trip to the dealers, followed by test-drives of numerous vehicles, before eventually plumping for your favourite and haggling the price down with a salesman!
But those days do look to be on the decline. For several months now dealerships and manufacturers have quoted a reduced numbers of test drives, this in the large part could be down to car buyers becoming savvier and doing their due diligence thoroughly online. Which would mean that they narrow their choices down more at home before test driving their preferred new car.
For consumers, buying a vehicle online offers a wide range of choice available to purchase direct from dealers but without having to physically visit a showroom prior to collecting the car. As well as this, those who don’t like to personally negotiate a discount on their vehicle needn’t come face to face with a salesman, leaving them free to choose the right car and the right price from the comfort of their own home.
As the automotive retail industry begins to change the way it operates to bring it in line with the massive growth of internet shopping, consumers are being encouraged to take control of the buying process by comparing their own finance options and seeing how each option they add, alter or remove directly impacts their financial choices.
Being in control of buying their dream car from within the confines of their favourite armchair, with finance options adjusted to suit their needs perfectly is a powerful and appealing position for the car buyers of today. Consumers will be in control of which dealership they buy and collect their car from, and benefit from dealer’s websites which are fully personalised, with individual finance options available.
As with many of the retail sector’s online shopping industries the aim of buying cars online is for it to be quick, easy and transparent. Once the research process has been completed, there is no longer a wait involved to visit a dealer, with a few clicks of a button, as soon as the car of choice is found, it can be bought with no hassle and no haggling!
There is no doubt about it that the overall number of test drives in the UK are plummeting rapidly, and more consumers are approaching buying their new vehicle with the same ‘I want it NOW’ attitude apparent across the rest of the retail market. Like it or not, vehicles are now being bought online and used car dealers shouldn’t get left behind!
For more information on how Click Dealer can help your dealership to begin offering ‘Click and Collect’ or ‘Click and Reserve’ services, contact us today on [email protected], 01782 904 715 or via our contact page.
