Consumers consider fewer brands before purchase...

Indian customers are considering fewer car models before making a fresh purchase, says a new survey. That’s a complete departure from their earlier habit of considering multiple models.

According to JD Power’s Asia Pacific 2008 India Escaped Shopper Study released on Tuesday, 27% of new vehicle buyers in India in 2008 considered at least one other model before purchasing their vehicle compared with 38% in 2007, marking a significant decline in cross-shopping rates since 2005.

In the study, two groups of customers—buyers of recently launched models and buyers of two-year older models—were studied. JD Power and Associates senior director Mohit Arora said:

“The introduction of several new models into the past few years has led to car buyers preferring personal opinions or advice from friends or relatives for purchasing new cars. The word-of-mouth publicity has increased for brands and customers are settling for the popular brands of cars.”

According to the study, Maruti Suzuki India topped in persuading shoppers to purchase its cars, with 38% of all shoppers eventually purchasing one of its models. Skoda Auto and Mahindra and Mahindra were the other brands whose buyers were least likely to consider another model in their shopping process.

Buyers of Mahindra-Renault and Hyundai cars, on the other hand, tend to shop around the most before purchasing their vehicles.

Source: The Economic Times