The results are in! Financially Consumed recently polled readers on the factors that they consider to be important when making a car buying decision.
The poll has been open for five (5) days and has recorded responses from 41 readers in that time. While this small audience may not technically satisfy the scientific definition of a representative sample, we’re going to tally the results anyway.
Car Buyer Factors Poll 2011
Readers were asked to select the Top 3 factors that influence their car purchase decision. The chart above shows the percentage of respondents that selected each factor. The Financially Consumed reader responses are displayed in green, and these are compared to Consumer Reports survey results from 2011 (blue) and 2010 (red).
Analysis:
- Financially Consumed readers rate value as the most important car buyer factor. I expect this is because the blog has more of a financial focus compared to Consumer Reports, whose readers rate safety as their most important factor.
- Environmentally Friendly / Green car buyer factors are more important to Financially Consumed readers than Consumer Reports readers. Not sure exactly why this factor was is so important, especially with gasoline prices at 12 month lows. Perhaps green cars are highly correlated with value by our readers.
- Performance was the second least important factor to Financially Consumed readers, but the third most important factor for Consumer Reports readers. Readers are not prepared to compromise on value and green factors for increased performance.
- The other factors were fairly well aligned with Consumer Reports findings, especially considering that our small sample size has a 10%+ or – margin of error.
I thought that technology and innovation would have been a more significant factor. It seems like we demand more gadgets in our cars all the time, and in my view technology is a driving force behind green innovation. The results here and the comments on the poll indicate that we each see these factors very differently. Truly understanding what is important to car buyers is a challenging business.
What are your thoughts on the poll outcomes? Any surprises?
Value is definitely my number one thing.
I’m not entirely surprised with the disparity of some of the results. The thing to keep in mind is the type of person answering the poll questions and doing the ratings. Frugal people will sacrifice almost all other characteristics for value, and that is proven by your readers placing such a low emphasis on performance and quality. I do, however, understand wanting to ensure getting a good value on something like a car, but not at the cost of the having to spend more on gas (performance) or having to make repairs more often (quality).
I was also surprised by the environmental/green factor. I completely understand value, but quality is important too. Interesting results.
Value is very subjective because you are looking at what you are receiving versus price and determining value. Everyone will select different options and evaluate value differently. For example, I would give no value for a navigation system, but a lot for AC.
“Financially Consumed readers rate value as the most important car buyer factor.”
Makes sense! Financial blog with financially responsible readers!
Value in itself implies safety I guess, at least that is what I was thinking when I voted for value. If it is not a safe care, I am assuming no one will buy it esp. used. So my theory is it goes hand in hand.
I’m not very surprised by the results at all except that CR readers rank “performance” so highly. I guess that is a totally different mindset.
Perhaps a better way to check the results would’ve been to ask readers to rank them in importance from 1 to 7 and then average the rankings. Might not have changed the rankings a whole lot but would be interesting to see.
I bought Camry because of its performance. It was always on my mind that this is the largest selling car in this country.
Very interesting results. I am very surprised that value was more important than safety. You would think it would be the reverse.
I wonder if Consumer Reports will find out about your survey and make a response.
Interesting poll and analysis. I wonder if the results would have been different with more responders – sometimes numbers make a difference with statistical significance.
Readers of Financially Consumed think clearly about what you get for your buck? They realise that giving up a bit of “Performance” (i.e. horsepower) will save money, and that going green generally saves money, so a car with slightly less Performance will give good value for money. The word “Performance” usually means OVERperformance, anyway. Most cars sold in the US have way more power than they need for cruising the nation’s highways at the nation’s speed limit: 76HP for a car the size of a Honda Accord. http://bit.ly/tzqzNX
Cool results! Not surprising that value, safety, and going green are important to personal finance blog readers. Do you plan to do more polls in the future?