Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) A large number of new vehicle buyers in India reject a model they initially considered due to the longer waiting time for delivery and buy another, said a survey Friday.

The India Escaped Shopper (ESS) study conducted by J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2010 said one out of every 10 customers rejected the model they initially wanted to buy due to a relatively long delivery period.

“The disparity between the automotive industry’s expected growth rate and higher-than-expected demand is the likely reason for the increased proportion of customers who have to wait for the vehicle of their choice,” said Mohit Arora, executive director at J.D. Power Asia Pacific.

The study also showed that over 53 percent of vehicle buyers in 2010 relied on newspapers and magazines as their source of information before buying a vehicle.

This is higher than the influence of television and the Internet. However, the advice of friends and relatives continue to play a dominant role by influencing over 80 percent of new-vehicle buyers in India.

“Increasing availability of special automotive editions from leading daily newspapers has made it easier and more convenient for vehicle buyers to find this kind of information,” said Arora.

The study also found that buyers of recently launched vehicle models in India are more inclined to evaluate at least one other new model while shopping, compared with buyers of existing models that have been on the market for two or more years.

The study, which surveyed 6,178 buyers and 1,851 rejectors of new cars who purchased their vehicles between September 2009 and April 2010, also cited price as another most important reason for vehicle rejection, with nearly one-third of shoppers rejecting a model because the price was too high.