Half of U.S. Consumers Delaying New Car Purchases

More than half (55%) of US consumers say they are delaying a planned purchase of a new vehicle, or opting for a pre-owned one because of the current recession, a lack of consumer confidence, and a weak stock market, according to a survey from TNS.

The study asked 2,500 consumers if and how the current economy has affected their new-vehicle purchase decisions. Excluding those who say they don’t buy new vehicles at all, 43% say they have not changed their new-vehicle purchase timeframe. However, nearly half say they are delaying a purchase more than six months (30%) or are opting for a used vehicle instead (19%).

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A much smaller number say they plan to delay for less than six months (5%) or are buying sooner (3%) to take advantage of deals.

In terms of what consumers thought was the most important thing that might revitalize dismal vehicle sales, resolving the banking crisis was by far consumers’ leading answer, with nearly 40% selecting this remedy. This may possibly be linked to car buyers’ current inability to get credit, TNS said.

Only 13% felt incentives and related deals on new vehicles would help the situation.

Comments

[Ishortyou:]

Personaly, and I probably represent a lot of the american consumers, I would not buy a car that still uses FOSSILE FUEL, the oil sector and the car sector had a lot of time to think about this ahead of time and not wait for a crisis to make the necessary changes, so no, I dont feel sorry for them.

2008 Dec 07 10:23 AM

[Vienna:]

I think that they partly deserve it yes - but how to deal with the secondary effects.

In Europe we always had very tight rules on which people where allowed to found a company. If you would want to be a constructor you would have to pass quite a few test. In the US you would shout government regulation, communism - remove it.

BUT - we consider it is better to have the people tested that work, than rather to have to fix a lot of houses and find out that someone was not performing.

This could be done with regulations, like higher tax for non fuel efficient cars, or higher gas prices since 20 years as in EU (we realized that oil is a limited resource). Well now this has to be fixed.

I hope that the US stop behaving like arrogant world leaders as they where doing while I was in the US working in Automotive Industry. Will you take the time available to adapt the production lines and technology (no it is not health or pension, in Europe we pay 1€ social cost for every 1€ the employer receives).

And do not do the same old procedure - hope that price of oil will go down to speed up economy - NO - you will need to do this with a lot of energy and now-how by the people involved, and not bet on any external force to help you.

2008 Dec 07 11:13 AM

[Homer II:]

It's about time that consumers stop rushing out (< 4 yrs) to buy another new car, and consider instead, one of several alternatives:

1) drive their existing car another 3-5 years.
2) buy a 2-3 year old used car.
3) invest in refurbishment of their existing car. ie: a new factory engine, transmission.

and put the savings in the bank.

2008 Dec 07 04:06 PM

[PastTense:]

Wow!.

Only 11-12% say other which includes what I would have expected to be the most important factor: good personal financial security. I would have expected a lot of people to be worried about getting laid off, lower income due to less overtime, lower self-employment profits, declining stock market investments. These are the types of things which would make me defer a big ticket purchase like a new car purchase if I were a new car buyer (but I'm not).

This demonstrates that new car buyers are different from the rest of us--
on the other hand it could indicate these idiots don't know how to do a poll.

2008 Dec 07 08:15 PM

[Steven Hansen:]

i do not understand why anyone would buy a car (unless they had to) with deteriorating economic conditions with scare mongers screaming this could be a depression.

wow, get ahold of yourself here and have a little financial discipline.

2008 Dec 07 08:56 PM

[MellowGuy:]

I am delaying partly because a hybrid model I want isn't available locally that isn't overloaded with expensive options.

2008 Dec 08 01:03 AM

[Ishortyou:]

Personally and I think I represent a lot of the american consumer, I would not buy a car that functions on old technology FOSSILE FUEL, The industry had a lot of time to make the changes to new clean independent fossile fuel technologies and now they are all crying like a baby, so no more excuses, time for a change since the 70's.

2008 Dec 08 06:15 AM

[Joe Friday:]

each year approximately 12M vehicles are "scrapped" in the US. Current run rates on vehicle sales (SAAR) is between 11-12M. It appears that this sales rate approximates the rate at which vehicles are being scrapped. Real growth in demand for vehicles should be consistent with population growth.
The sales rates we witnessed in the last few years of between 15-17M vehicles were unsustainable, and more of a function of insanely low financing rates then real "need". In essence, the auto industry brought forward demand, and now they will have to pay for that mistake.
it will take some time for that excess supply to work itself out of the market.

2008 Dec 08 09:14 AM

[sumosama:]

I think you nailed it with this comment...


On Dec 07 08:15 PM PastTense wrote:

> Wow!.
>
> on the other hand it could indicate these idiots don't know how to
> do a poll.

2008 Dec 08 12:45 PM