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Used cars in high demand
On behalf of willhaben, the market and opinion research institute marketagent surveyed around 1,734 Austrians about car buying. The representative result is disappointing for the new car trade.
Used cars in high demand
The survey initiated by willhaben shows that the desire to buy a car has only been slightly affected by the Corona pandemic, but that the budget allocated for this has shrunk significantly. The results of the study carried out by the marketagent institute in detail: In the past 12 months, almost 40% of those surveyed were looking for a new or used vehicle. 63% of them were interested in a used car, the rest in demonstration cars or new cars. About 30% of buyers choose a car that is between three and six years old, and another 30% choose a car that is three years old or less. Overall, Corona influenced around 35% of those surveyed when buying a car. Among women, 17% said they were “strongly” influenced by Corona, 20% said they were “somewhat influenced”. Men were comparatively less influenced by the pandemic, only 12% answered “strongly” and 21% answered “somewhat”.
Reliability is key
Since Corona has generally shrunk the budget for buying a car, prospective buyers have increasingly focused on reliable used cars with low mileage. So the durability rather than the purchase price was the focus of the search. This is suggested by the fact that even people who actually had less money at their disposal due to the pandemic were hardly looking for older and cheaper models, where higher repair costs are to be expected. Most searches were in the price range up to 25,000 euros (24%), followed by the price ranges up to 15,000 euros (22%), up to 10,000 euros (21%), up to 5,000 euros (15%) and up to 1,000 euros (2%).
German brands preferred
According to the survey, Austrians' favorite brand is clearly VW. Behind them are Audi, Skoda, BMW and Seat. The desired models are now increasingly being searched for via smartphone. In comparison, the use of PCs/laptops as well as tablets/iPads for searching has been steadily decreasing since 2017. When looking for new vehicles, VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat are also at the top. While visits to car dealerships to buy a new vehicle have declined sharply due to Corona, online car exchanges, portals and apps in particular have seen an increase: usage rose from 26 to 33% from December 2018 to April 2021.