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.