Toronto, Ontario — Urban Science and The Harris Poll recently released its 2024 Urban Science Dealership Transformation Index (DTI) which reveals that generation Z (Gen Z) is the both the most confident in dealer relevance and most willing to explore online vehicle buying processes.
The study, which aims to capture and analyze the evolving views of the auto buying public regarding sales and services in the United State’s automotive dealership network showed that overall, the network scored an average DTI score by Urban Science’s scale of 56, and a one-point year-over-year improvement.
This score was informed by a series of factors such as auto buying survey responses in the categories of dealer relevance, trend resistance and actions.
Specifically, the study noted that dealer relevance—which “gauges how auto buyers perceive the role of dealers) and the expertise of sales people—was this year, an average score of 62.
Within this, 43 percent of auto buyers strongly agreed that dealers play an essential role in car buying.
Moreover, in terms of dealership optimization, auto buyers reportedly increasingly believe that traditional dealerships are optimized for the future, with 38 percent of auto buyers overall, 49 percent of electric vehicle (EV) owners and 36 percent of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle owners strongly agreeing with this statement.
However, it is when looking at generational data that Gen Z comes to the forefront as most strongly believe in the role of dealerships and automotive-related technologies.
Here, dealer relevance was highest among Gen Z with a strong score of 67. Within this, 51 percent of Gen Z auto buyers also strongly agreed that today’s dealers provide the resources, tools and tech to make buying a vehicle easy.
Additionally, Gen Z and Millennials also strongly agreed that they are open to purchasing a vehicle fully online at 38 percent and 46 percent respectively and in comparison to Baby Boomers at just 19 percent.
While these figures represent customers from an automotive purchasing perspective, these generational trends also reflect how collision repairers can approach the workspace.
Collision Repair magazine recently explored different strategies that repairers can use to help different generations collaborate together. Using information provided during area manager of operations, CARSTAR, Christy Hall’s presentation at the 2023 Spring Conference of the Saskatchewan Association of Auto Repairers (SAAR), the article outlines how Gen Z typically responds best to personalized attention and interactions performed through tech-based avenues.
Check out Urban Science and The Harris Poll’s study and also check out Collision Repair’s Revving Together to see how to keep both customers and employees alike in harmony.
