The J.D. Power 2018 India Escaped Shopper Study reveals a shift in new car buyers’ priorities as they now consider fuel efficiency and performance as more important parameters over interior and exterior styling which were rated higher earlier.
J.D. Power’s 2018 India Escaped Shopper results are out and its findings associated to new car buyers and their decision-making paint quite the contrasting picture. For the findings of the study have revealed that keeping prices side, the two top most buyer influencing factors for new cars are fuel economy and acceleration which have overtaken exterior and interior styling parameters.
In this year’s J.D. Power survey, it has been found that 13 per cent of new car buyers cited fuel efficiency as the most influential purchase decision and 12 per cent buyers cited that performance was their reason while considering a new car purchase, features and tech in a car accounted for 10 per cent new car buyer’s priority for choosing a model. Vehicle price continues to be the most influencing factor during a new car purchase which can ultimately lead to buyers rejecting a particular model owing to higher costs, despite the vehicle meeting all of their other demands.
“Although fuel efficiency has always been top-of-mind for car owners in India, this has been heightened by recent increases in fuel prices and competition among vehicle manufacturers positioning fuel economy as a unique selling proposition,” said, Shantanu Majumdar, Regional Director, Automotive Practice at J.D. Power. “While most newly launched vehicles score highly on styling, buyers in India are increasingly selecting or rejecting vehicles based on other attributes like performance, feature content, practicality of usage and vehicle warranty period. Manufacturers, therefore, need to ensure that they match product offerings to their customers’ purchase reasons.”
The study also indicates that more and more people are doing their research online before actually going to a dealership as 59 per cent of new car buyers visited dealerships in 2018 as opposed to 72 per cent in the year 2017. The study further states that 66 per cent of people are influenced by friends and family for influencing the decision making during a new car purchase. The study also brought to light that one in four car buyers considered purchasing an SUV model. Those seeking to purchase SUVs stated that the primary factors behind their decision making were vehicle performance, exterior styling, safety and fuel economy.
The 2018 India Escaped Shopper Study published its findings for data collected between the duration of March to August 2018 and surveyed over 8,700 vehicle owners who purchased their vehicles between September 2017 and March 2018.
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