More Used-Car Buyers Venture Beyond Local Market
When it comes to buying used cars, more and more shoppers are looking beyond their local market.
According to analysis released Monday by CNW Research, the proportion of used-vehicle customers who left their local dealer’s marketing area to buy was at 17 percent in November.
This is up from 15.7 percent who did so a year ago.
CNW also found that used-car buyers last month didn’t take as long to search for a vehicle, thanks largely to the impact of Superstorm Sandy.
“Following Superstorm Sandy, the duration of the search for a used vehicle shrunk to only 2.8 weeks, with the shortest duration in the Northeast at 2.4 to 2.5 weeks,” said CNW president Art Spinella. “This compared to 4.7 weeks last year. Most of this increase can be linked to finding a replacement for a storm-damaged vehicle.”
Sharing some other snippets of used-car data from November, CNW found Detroit dipping and the car segments climbing.
Specifically, the share of Big 3 brands among used-car sales failed to reach 60 percent for the first time since 2010, CNW said. The Big 3 share of used deliveries was at 56.4 percent, down from 62.25 percent in November 2011.
Breaking down a trend in segment sales, CNW found that the share of total used sales commanded by car segments climbed from 53.4 percent in November 2011 to 53.9 percent this time around.