What Car Buyers Are Looking For

Anthony Fontanelle
February 15, 2007

Choosing a car involves looking at the different attributes of a car. Consumers tend to go for different things in a car, from its performance or its design or other factors. A car’s design and its components play a major role in its marketing. Car buyers will look at different aspects of the car and its components from its parts to its overall performance. Choosy customers even looked at each component like the presence of a cup holder to Volvo Rotors and calipers. The Detroit Free Press has recently conducted a poll to learn what most car buyers are looking for in a vehicle.

What comes out on top is the car’s fuel economy. It can be remembered that the price of gasoline has sky rocketed last summer and that may be the foremost reason why car buyers are going for fuel efficient vehicles. Forty-three percent of the respondents said they would buy a car that is fuel efficient even if the prices of gasoline have recently dropped. Mike Walker, 47, of Trenton said he thinks that the price may have dropped but he thinks of it as “a lull before the storm”. He cited that the dependency on foreign oil is weighing heavily on the minds of car buyers.

While some car buyers like Walker cited that expected increase in the price of gasoline is their reason for looking for a fuel efficient car, some may have a completely different reason. Case in point is Amy Wieleba, 52, of Novi; she said that she would go for a fuel efficient car as her contribution to the protection of the environment. “We have to take care of the environment, each and every one of us as best as we can”, Wieleba quipped. She said she is looking for a hybrid electric car to take the place of her Ford Explorer which she said is consuming too much gasoline.

Coming second in the poll conducted last January 28 to 31 is the concern for safety. Twenty-six percent of the 803 respondents said that they are looking for cars that will provide safety in an event of crash and the peace of mind that car’s with great safety features offers to a driver and passengers. Another factor that weighs heavily for car buyers in choosing a car is the cargo space and the number of people a vehicle can accommodate while giving adequate leg space and headroom. Twenty-two percent of the respondents said that the room for cargo and people is the first thing they will look for in a vehicle.

Low cost for maintenance is also another thing that car buyers are looking for in a vehicle. About twenty percent of the polled motorists said that they will look for this attribute first in a car. Apart from these factors, other aspects that car buyers look for in a car is the performance of the car, thirteen percent of the respondents said that a car’s performance will be the first on their list when shopping for a car. Eight percent of the respondents cited that all-weather handling is the most important thing to look for in a car. Six percent said that a vehicle’s ability to tow a boat is their priority in choosing a car. Only five percent of the respondents said that the aesthetic value of a car is the first thing they will look for when choosing a vehicle to buy.

The result of the poll has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. But the margin error does not alter the result drastically.

Source: Amazines.com