Declining share of buyers plan to purchase their next car online

A declining share of car buyers plan to purchase their next car entirely online, according to new research by What Car?. 

In its latest weekly survey, just 4.2% of 873 in-market consumers told What Car? they expect to buy their next car entirely online, with delivery to their home address. This is down from 9.7% in June 2022, when What Car? last asked the same question.

In the latest survey, 41.1% of buyers told What Car? they are comfortable with the idea of buying a car online. This is also down from June 2022, when 49.9% of buyers said they were comfortable with it. 

While comfort with buying online is down, though, the share of buyers believing they can get a better deal online compared with visiting a dealer has stayed the same over the last nine months, at 22.5%.

On the other hand, the share of buyers believing they can get a better price from a dealer than online has grown from 29.5% to 33.4%.

What Car? editor Steve Huntingford said: “Despite the growing presence of online-only retailers and a push from manufacturers towards online buying, the share of people set to buy their next car online has fallen over the past nine months. 

“What is particularly striking is the disparity between the number of people who say they are comfortable with the idea of buying a car online and the number of buyers actually planning to do so. This suggests manufacturers have a lot of work to do in convincing buyers that they’d be better off buying online.”