Internet favoured by car buyers

CAR buyers now rate the internet almost as important as television as the best media for car brand awareness, according to a recent survey.

The recent survey by market researcher Colmar Brunton found that 27 per cent of people intending to buy a new car in the next four years regarded television as the best for making them aware of brands, but 24 per cent of buyers now think the internet performs that role best.

The survey is a blow for newspapers which, having lost the classified advertising war to the internet, now face the prospect of becoming irrelevant in helping people decide which brand of car to buy.

The ability of newspapers to deliver brand awareness to car companies was found to be valuable by just 15 per cent of buyers. Magazines, formerly the bible for car buyers, were even further back, at 13 per cent.

The survey also confirmed the power of the internet as a car-buying tool with 41 per cent saying the web was best for deciding what model to buy, 54 per cent saying it was the best way to get pricing and features and 51 per cent saying it was the best way to compare models they were considering.

Friends and family were quite influential with more than 20 per cent saying that friends and family were best for helping to decide which cars to buy. Advice from friends and family also played a role in comparing cars to buy.

But newspaper owners who publish car reviews online can take heart from respondents who used the internet for car research. Of these, 75 per cent nominated car review web sites as most important in deciding which car to buy while 74 per cent named car company websites and 44 per cent said car dealer websites were important.