Car buying habits?
Discussion
How much of the buying habits and trends are actually dictated by the manufacturers, rather than by the customers?
A couple of points over the weekend have got me thinking on this.
Example 1:
The Evoque.
It's available in essentially 12 different variants (or 24 if you count 5 door and 3 door). Out of the 12, 11 are diesel and only 1 is petrol. The petrol will also cost you around £8k more than the diesel (as it forces you to buy the top line model to get it).
This means, that probably 90-95%+ of all Evoque sales are likely to be diesel. But how true a reflection is this really? If the petrol was offered for the same money as the diesel and with the same choice, would the percentage variance truly remain?
Example 2:
Colours. While looking at the Sirocco R build your car website, it was apparent that there where only 5 colours to choose from. 4 of them cost options.
So not only was there actually very little choice, 4/5ths of the colours were to cost you extra money. How likely is it then, that there'll be more white ones than any other colour sold? (white being the non cost only colour option)
Example 3:
Prevented choice. I've noticed on more than one online car configurator, that you are prevented certain choices, i.e. if the maker offers yellow as an option, you'll pretty much only ever be allowed a black interior, despite the fact that many different colour interiors might be available. If you are ordering a car, why is it so restrictive in some situations? I can understand technical limitations of having to have one option combined with another, when supplied as a pack, maybe a nav system and uprated stereo. But when it's things that are only a personal style choice, why restrict and dictate to people?
A couple of points over the weekend have got me thinking on this.
Example 1:
The Evoque.
It's available in essentially 12 different variants (or 24 if you count 5 door and 3 door). Out of the 12, 11 are diesel and only 1 is petrol. The petrol will also cost you around £8k more than the diesel (as it forces you to buy the top line model to get it).
This means, that probably 90-95%+ of all Evoque sales are likely to be diesel. But how true a reflection is this really? If the petrol was offered for the same money as the diesel and with the same choice, would the percentage variance truly remain?
Example 2:
Colours. While looking at the Sirocco R build your car website, it was apparent that there where only 5 colours to choose from. 4 of them cost options.
So not only was there actually very little choice, 4/5ths of the colours were to cost you extra money. How likely is it then, that there'll be more white ones than any other colour sold? (white being the non cost only colour option)
Example 3:
Prevented choice. I've noticed on more than one online car configurator, that you are prevented certain choices, i.e. if the maker offers yellow as an option, you'll pretty much only ever be allowed a black interior, despite the fact that many different colour interiors might be available. If you are ordering a car, why is it so restrictive in some situations? I can understand technical limitations of having to have one option combined with another, when supplied as a pack, maybe a nav system and uprated stereo. But when it's things that are only a personal style choice, why restrict and dictate to people?
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