THE extent to which car buyers were forced to compromise on the model they wanted to buy, or even the brand they wanted to buy, due to the shortage of vehicle supply in the past couple of years, has been revealed in data presented to the customers of Angle Auto Finance in a recent in-house workshop.
The data also shows the degree to which car buyers were forced to wait for the cars they bought; again due to the chip shortage and other supply and logistics difficulties.
The research by RFI Global was presented recently at an online client workshop run by Angle Auto Finance using research between 2017 and 2022 of a cohort of customers who have purchased a car in the past two years and who used finance to fund that car purchase.
Anna Perera-Shaw, director of consumer credits, deposits and payments at RFI Global told dealers attending the workshop that while three quarters of loan holders who bought their car in the previous 12 months managed to secure the make and model they desired, 18 per cent either bought a model other than the one they really wanted or bought a brand other than the one they initially intended to purchase.
The 74 per cent who managed to secure the make and model they desired is down from 80 per cent of those loan holders who bought a car in the previous one to two years and managed to purchase the car they wanted.
The number of loan holders who bought a car in the past 12 months who said they did not get the model they wanted was 11 per cent; up from six per cent in the one to two years group and the number of loan holders who bought a car in the past 12 months who said they did not get the brand they wanted was seven per cent; up from four per cent in the one to two years group.
Ms Perera-Shaw said RFI Global measured the extent to which a customer is really set on getting a specific car, versus some customers who are more willing to compromise on make or model.
“We asked customers when they purchased their car, was it their first preference in terms of brand make and model? Three in four said “Yes, I was able to purchase exactly what I wanted.
“But this has fallen from two years ago. So when we are looking at more recent customers versus less recent customers, we see that the less recent customers are more likely to say they purchased exactly what they wanted.
Anna Perera-Shaw
“But those who purchased their car in the past 12 months were more likely to actually say they purchased the brand they wanted, but not the model they wanted. And they’ve become more likely to also say they were not able to even purchase the brand they wanted.
“So some customers had to compromise or not get what they wanted. Although, in saying that, the overall majority is still that 74 per cent who were able to purchase what they wanted and that indicated how much people are just willing to wait. There is a threshold that customers are willing to wait.
“When we look at our research of car loan holders who indicate they bought a new car, two thirds of these customers said they experienced some kind of delay, typically waiting up to one month or one to three months to receive the car that they wanted.
“Of customers who bought a new car, most have experienced some kind of delay. So one in three had no delays, but two in three had some kind of delay, whether it was one month or three to six months.”
Ms Perera-Shaw said that of those who waited, the average wait was just under four months and that 64 per cent of loan holders experienced delays, with 26 per cent experiencing delays of more than three months, and 12 per cent waiting more than six months.
The numbers break down into:
- 15 per cent had to wait up to a month
- 22 per cent had to wait 1-3 months
- 14 per cent had to wait 3-6 months
- 10 per cent had to wait 6-12 months
- 2 per cent had to wait more than 12 months
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By John Mellor
