IRVINE, Calif. -

Kelley Blue Book’s Consumer Sentiment Survey from the first quarter showed 33 percent of study participants didn’t expect to finance a vehicle purchase, and another 30 percent weren’t sure.

Rather than thinking finance companies are going to fight over just 37 percent of those remaining shoppers who expected to secure an installment contract, KBB’s Dan Ingle sees the survey results as a great opportunity. Ingle is vice president of valuations and industry products for Kelley Blue Book and part of the Market Intelligence team that orchestrated the survey between Feb. 18 and March 6. The project included 1,830 participants who intended to make a new- or used-vehicle purchase sometime within the next two years.

“To me, there’s a lot of opportunity to try and help educate consumers more on the process,” Ingle told SubPrime Auto Finance News during a phone interview earlier this week.

“A lot of consumers focus so much time and energy on the car itself and not as much on how they’re actually going to transact and pay for the vehicle,” he continued. “I think there is a great opportunity out there to do a better job of educating consumers around the process and what their options are.

“When you think about a consumer going into the shopping and purchase process, there are several avenues out there for them when it comes to financing,” Ingle went on to say. “You can go into the dealer and get financing indirectly through the dealership. There are programs directly from manufacturers to purchase a new or certified pre-owned vehicle.

“Then there are also options like going to a credit union as well as getting financing direct from a lender before you even walk into the dealership,” he added. “There’s a lot of different ways to do it. I don’t think enough consumers are educated about the process and the different options available to them.”

Ingle’s thinking goes along with what associations and industry advisers have been emphasizing to finance companies. Americans Well-informed on Automobile Retailing Economics (AWARE) offers multiple, easy-to-use tools on its website.

AWARE members include the American Financial Services Association, National Automobile Dealers Association, National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers and American International Automobile Dealers Association, as well as members of these organizations.

“Consumers may get overwhelmed when researching vehicle financing online,” AWARE spokeswoman Susie Irvine said. “Autofinancing101.org contains free, relevant information in one place to help consumers understand the entire vehicle financing process.”

Should consumers leverage the tools available from organizations such as AWARE, Ingle sees the declining level of potential buyers who think they can use only cash to complete a vehicle purchase. The latest KBB survey showed 42 percent of used-only shoppers intended to make a cash-only transactions.

“I would imagine depending on how far out they are, they might be initially thinking, ‘I’ll take the cash I have available on hand, and I’ll just pay cash for the car instead of having to finance it,’” Ingle said. “But my guess would be as you get closer to the execution of the transaction, you’re going to see that number go down a little bit.

“Most consumers as they get into the process might look at it and say, ‘Given how inexpensive cash is now from a lending perspective, I can get a loan for this vehicle.’ Interest rates are low enough that it makes it seem like an efficient way to use the funds available. They can take that money and invest it instead of putting it into the vehicle,” he went on to say.

Ingle mentioned this survey is the first time KBB probed shoppers about their financing intentions. He said the Market Intelligence team intends to conduct more inquiries.

“Based on this Q1 research, we’ll definitely run it again,” Ingle said. “We think there is a lot of interesting things in there, especially as the market for financing is likely to begin to change.

“Everyone keeps talking about interest rates going up. As the phenomenon happens, you can definitely see some possible impact on what consumers’ intentions are. I think we’ll probably see some shifting around in that data,” he added.