Women Car Buyers - Ask Patty is Taking a Survey!

Women Car Buyers we need your help! Comment on this post with your opinion, Ask Patty is taking her our own survey on whether women consumers are happy or not with their car buying experiences!

Which survey has their facts right?

A recent survey of 932 new car buyers, 108 shoppers, 694 non-shoppers and 101 professionals involved in automotive media, published by Automotive Retailing Today (ART), a coalition of all major automobile manufacturers and dealer organizations states there is no gender difference in car buying habits of consumers.

The new research, commissioned by ART and conducted by Harris Interactive(R) between July and August 2006.

  Findings include:

  * 91 percent of new car purchasers were satisfied (extremely, very or
    somewhat) with their purchase experience;

  * Minority vs. non-minority overall shopping experiences remain positive
    (85 percent versus 84 percent);

  * Improved satisfaction with financing, particularly among minorities;

  * Women rate the purchase experience highly (87 percent extremely, very,
    or somewhat positive experience / 92 percent extremely, very, or
    somewhat satisfied with their overall experience) and exhibit
    confidence in buying vehicles; and

  * Shopping multiple dealerships is a function of seeking the best price
    (46 percent) or obtaining a specific vehicle (66 percent).

  Women's Buying Experience

This study attempts to debunk myths about gender differences in the auto-buying experience. They state from this very small sampling , which by the way does not denote how many women consumers were surveyed, that there is a misperception that most women bring their spouses or partners to showrooms out of apprehension or lack of confidence. Rather, women bring their spouses or partners to shop with them because it is a family investment requiring serious deliberation.

The most-cited reasons why the women who said they brought a man with them did so focus on lifestyle:

  * Man was their spouse/significant other (39 percent);
  * Man was more knowledgeable (15 percent);
  * We share the decision-making (13 percent); and
  * We shop/do things together (8 percent).
Less than 1-in-10 women who brought a man with them said they did so out of discomfort with the dealership process.

This contradicts the 2006 survey by Capital One Auto Finance's second Gender Rules of the Road survey of automotive buying habits shows that a significant percentage of women continue to feel disadvantaged in the car-buying process. The nationalsurvey of 1,000 female car buyers finds that an astonishing 77 percent of women plan to bring a man along for their next vehicle purchase - a slight increase from the 75 percent who indicated the same in Capital One's 2004 survey.

"While 85 percent of women feel that they were treated fairly during their most recent car purchase, the study findings suggest that women are most likely to bring men to make their purchases as a means to better-manage the financial aspects of the transaction. (Nearly seven out of 10 women feel they are at a greater disadvantage then men when it comes to buying a car.) In fact, 70 percent of women continue to find the financial aspects of the car-buying process the most difficult, indicating that their greatest challenge is obtaining a good deal on price."

"It's troubling to see that women still do not feel empowered to manage the car-buying process on their own. It's important that women realize that confidence and purchasing power requires education - not a male companion. Rather than turning to a man for support, women should instead take advantage of the variety of educational resources available to them," said Diana Don Colby, director of financial education at leading financial services company Capital One.

This also conflicts with the 2006 survey of 9800 women conducted by CarMax a leading retailer who offers no haggle pricing titled  BUYING A CAR REMAINS A HASSLE FOR WOMEN Recent Poll Shows Little-to-No Improvement From Previous Years Biggest Gripes.

Buying a car remains a hassle for women, according to a recent poll conducted by CarMax, Inc. (NYSE: KMX), the nation’s largest retailer of used cars, on the company’s website. The poll shows no improvement in women’s biggest gripes from previous years in which the poll was conducted."

CarMax recently surveyed more than 9,800 women on carmax.com about what was most lacking in their car-buying experience. The responses are summarized below, compared with the responses to a similar survey conducted on CarMax.com in 2004.

Infiniti announced plans yesterday to increase their marketing budget 20% in 2007 to focus on women, this says it all... go here to read the full story.

Which survey is right?

Women Car Buyers we need your help!

Comment on this post with your opinion, below Ask Patty is taking her our own survey on whether women consumers are happy or not with their car buying experiences! You can also email your comments to articles@askpatty.com.