Gas Prices Have Consumers Considering New Vehicles
The latest report from AutoVibes says that rising gas price are having a big impact on consumers. Many new car buyers are considering vehicles that get better gas mileage including hybrids. AutoVibes found that more than 62 percent of new-vehicle shoppers are strongly considering the purchase of a vehicle they normally would not have considered, and 30 percent say they already have changed their minds about what vehicle they are going to buy. AutoVibes is a monthly automotive study from Harris Interactive and Kelley Blue Book Marketing Research tracking consumer automotive buying intentions
"The new data from the latest AutoVIBES study provides insight into consumers’ future buying intentions," said Rick Wainschel, vice president of marketing research and brand communications for Kelley Blue Book. "Extreme shifts in segment consideration levels reveal just how profound the impact of recent increases in gas prices is on consumers and their vehicle purchase behaviors. This information will be an important bellwether of the long-term effect of this issue on new-vehicle shoppers."
These preliminary April 2006 AutoVIBES data also show an increase in awareness of alternative fuel vehicles. Sixty-six percent of consumers are aware of E85 (a mixture of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline), and 59 percent are aware of flex-fuel vehicles (those that can run on either regular gasoline or E85). The April awareness levels for both E85 and flex-fuel vehicles jumped a significant number of points over the previous month (E85 and flex-fuel awareness levels were at 60 percent and 55 percent in March 2006, respectively).
"With gas prices on the rise and continuing to climb, consumers are more aware of and interested in highly fuel-efficient cars now than they have been in the last 25 years," said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com. "We expect to see increased consumer interest for some of the recently-introduced fuel-efficient sub-compact vehicles such as the Toyota Yaris, Nissan Versa and Honda Fit, in addition to hybrid, flex-fuel and compact models."
Here are some of the trends for specifici vehicles. As you might expect hybrids are trending much higher while SUVs are trending lower.
Consideration for compact sedans is at an all-time high at 19 percent, up four points from the previous month.
Hybrid vehicle consideration also reached an all-time high in April at 14 percent, which is more than double the percentage of consumers that were considering hybrids last month. (Six percent considered hybrids in March 2006).
In contrast, consideration for mid-size SUVs is at an all-time low at 19 percent, and full-size pickup consideration also is down considerably at 11 percent, a 5 point drop from the previous month.
The complete report from AutoVibes can be found here.
