A RECENT NATIONAL SURVEY has supposedly uncovered what new car buyers most want in their next new car.
Most motoring journalists may be surprised to learn that performance doesn’t make it into the top five (something we here at seniordriveraus.com have been well aware of for some time). Neither does design and style or brand image, but that may only be respondents trying to look responsible.
Top of the list, and no surprise to anybody, is PRICE.
Next most important to respondents was FUEL ECONOMY, which hardly accords with the overwhelming move to large SUVs, even for suburban duties.
Unexpectedly, buyer rated COLOUR as the third most important consideration. Really? The most popular colours for cars in Australia are the safe and conservative white, silver and grey. White wins hands down with 21% share; grey sells 18% and silver and black each account for 17%. And the last time we looked, almost every car on the market could be had in any of these colours.
Number four on the list for buyers was INSURANCE COST. If you’ve tried to insure something exotic or performance-oriented lately, you’ll understand why.
Still lagging down the list is SAFETY, proving that some people just won’t learn. Fortunately, increasing safety technology, both passive and active, is putting new car buyers into safer cars whether they want them or not.
Perennial headline for most new car reviews, PERFORMANCE, comes in at number six on the list, followed by MANUFACTURER, proving that the badge on the bonnet is still important, although more for reputation and reliability than image.
Number eight on the list is one that local manufacturers seemed incapable of understanding until it was too late: SIZE. Buyers have been turning away from large cars (other than SUVs) in droves, although they are still showing some resistance to the micro car class.
Hard to understand is the ranking of QUALITY since we would have thought this one to be very important. On the other hand, it helps explain the increasing popularity of some of the Chinese and Indian brands who seem to place quality even further down the list than their buyers.
Last on the list comes ENGINE SIZE, by which we assume capacity rather than the amount of space it takes up under the bonnet.
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