CARY, N.C. -

Various themes emerged from a January AutoTRADER.ca survey of Canadian car shoppers. But TRADER Corp. vice president of marketing Lilian Lau highlighted one of the survey’s main insights.

“Great news: People are buying cars,” she said.

AutoTRADER.ca asked Canadian car shoppers whether they agreed that it was a good time to make a major purchase such as an automobile.

Forty percent said yes. And almost 50% said they had been able to save more money during the pandemic.

The company also asked those intending to buy a used car what sources of information they used to shop for the car. Fifty-seven percent said online marketplaces were their the top sources of information, followed by OEM web sites at 39% and dealership websites at 32%.

Lau also said the fact that customers are turning to online resources to buy vehicles, especially on the used side, is an important finding of the study.

“It’s important for a dealer to recognize, ‘OK, I need to have a really great dealer experience so that people can shop online with me,’ and also being present on online marketplaces, because a lot of customers are using that as a resource,” Lau said.

How COVID concern relates to purchase intention

Autotrader asked how concerned survey participants were about the pandemic and whether they felt the situation was improving or getting worse.

“Not surprisingly, very early on in COVID-19 back in March 2020, there was a lot of uncertainty,” Lau said.

More people thought the situation was getting worse than better. That improved during the summer, but when fall came, concern rose again and many Canadian provinces began implementing restrictions.

“The positive news in all this is even though there is growing concern around COVID, the level of concern around the economy, around consumers’ personal finances, and their purchase affordability for cars has actually improved,” Lau said.

Sixty-eight percent of shoppers in March 2020 said they would consider delaying their purchase as a result of the pandemic. That has now dropped 20 points to 48%.  Previously, 56% of consumers said they were nervous about being able to afford a vehicle because of the pandemic. That has dropped to 38%.

“While the concern around COVID has fluctuated throughout the year, the trend around consumers’ personal shopping behaviors and their perception of the economy has actually improved,” Lau said. “So it’s really showing how resilient car purchasing is.”

Another finding of the survey was that purchase intention has remained consistent. The company asked Canadians if they were intending to purchase a car in the next six months.

Throughout the pandemic, new- and used-vehicle purchase intent within a six-month timeframe remained stable. Over the past few months, the metric has been between 16 and 18%. In mid-February, AutoTRADER had that number at 17%.

Why are you buying? COVID didn’t change the answer

Lau said one interesting finding was that the answer to the question, “Why are you buying a vehicle?” did not change after the pandemic.  The company asked that question before the pandemic, wanting to know if people were buying because of a practical reason such as a job change, or whether they simply wanted something nicer or newer.

In February of last year, the top reason people wanted to purchase a vehicle was the age of their current vehicle.

“So not necessarily that the vehicle was too old, but just that they were ready to move on,” Lau said. The second reason respondents gave was the desire to upgrade to something nicer.

“And when COVID hit, we thought, OK, maybe that’s going to change a bit,” Lau said. “Maybe people have to buy cars more for function now and not just because it’s an aspirational purchase or they want the latest thing. Positive news, that actually didn’t change,” Lau said.

Positive news is also good for autoTRADER.ca

The autoTRADER.ca marketplace in August broke its record with 25 million visits, Lau said. That represented a 21% year-over-year increase compared to August 2019.  That’s because although people were not able to go to a dealership to shop, they were still shopping. 

Lau said that should send a message to dealers: Don’t stop advertising.

“Consumers are out there,” she said. “You really want to be where those consumers are.”

She said autoTRADER.ca partnered with its dealers to offer its Remote Selling Suite, which allows dealers to engage with consumers in a contactless way. The company has also enabled digitization of tasks that consumers were hesitant to complete in person, such as configuring their lease or finance payment, getting trade-in appraisal value and getting approved for credit.

The company has given consumers “choice in terms of how they want to interact with the dealership,” she said. “So that’s something TRADER is very proud to offer our dealer community, solutions like digital retail.”