ATLANTA –

With the NADA Convention & Expo is in full swing this week, AutoTrader.com released new statistics that show car shoppers are looking for a convenient — and short — car-buying experience.

Once customers make it onto the lots, a recent white paper from Cox Automotive — parent company to AutoTrader —  shows car buyer satisfaction with the dealership experience drops after an hour-and-a-half. When car shoppers choose a dealership to visit, they are expecting to be in and out fast.

According to the AutoTrader Dealer Sourcing Studies which were published in the recent white paper “It’s About Time: Streamlining In-Store Processes to Improve the Customer Experience,” customer satisfaction is at its highest within the first 90 minutes on the day of purchase.

The white paper took an in-depth look at four dealerships to study actual cycle time across key processes from post-vehicle selection to pre-delivery of a vehicle, the company explained.

And once dealers go beyond the 1.5 hour mark, customer satisfaction begins to drop. And if you get beyond 2.5 hours for a deal, satisfaction drops below buyers’ average satisfaction score.

The white paper found that the sales process at the four dealerships studied, on average, took nearly 53 minutes, which is over half of the total cycle time desired of 90 minutes. Once again, the vehicle appraisal process took an average of 43 minute, almost half of the desired cycle time.

Lastly, the F&I process tacked another 61 minutes onto the process.

“While some dealers are making strides in correcting the issues that contribute to purchase-day delays, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done — on­­­ our side as a partner and technology provider and in-store at dealerships,” said Rowe.  “We are committed to working closely with our dealer customers to bring more transparency and efficiencies into the car buying process that will ultimately help them exceed buyers’ expectations.”